Thursday, January 06, 2022
Geiger surprisingly far back
Only Kobayashi jumps better than Eisenbichler
Ryoyu Kobayashi shows his outstanding form in the last qualification of this year’s Four Hills Tournament. Markus Eisenbichler is strong, but the overall leader is a bit better in Bischofshofen. Disappointed, Karl Geiger trudges out of the spout.
Markus Eisenbichler and Karl Geiger showed light and shadow in qualifying for the final competition of the 70th Four Hills Tournament in Bischofshofen. The six-time world champion Eisenbichler flew at 139.5 meters and finished second just behind Japan’s tour dominator Ryoyu Kobayashi. Geiger was only 123.0 meters and 37th after a mistake. Before the tour decision this afternoon from 5.30 p.m. (ARD, Eurosport and in the live ticker at ntv.de), Eisenbichler and Geiger (5th) are not even fourth Meters behind third-placed Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud, who was only 32nd in qualification.
Front runner Kobayashi, who would make the Grand Slam for the second time with another win of the day, won the preliminary round with a jump of 137.5 meters. His rival Marius Lindvik (Norway), who is around ten meters behind Kobayashi in the overall standings, came in third with 134.0 meters.
World champion Severin Freund convinced as the second best German in 19th place. The eleventh overall Stephan Leyhe was 26th, youngster Constantin Schmid was 29th best 50.
The pairings with German participation in the overview
In the 25 knockout duels of the first round, in which the winners and the five best losers qualify for the second round, there are the following pairings with German participation (the position in the qualification in brackets):
Simon Ammann (Switzerland / 49th) – Markus Eisenbichler (2nd)
Halvor Egner Granerud (Japan / 32nd) – Severin Freund (19th)
Stephan Leyhe (26th) – Ulrich Wohlgenannt (Austria / 25th)
Constantin Schmid (29th) – Giovanni Bresadola (Italy / 22nd)
Karl Geiger (37th) – Manuel Fettner (Austria / 14th)
Pius Paschke (39th) – Yukiya Sato (Japan / 12th)
Andreas Wellinger (42nd) – Stefan Kraft (Austria / 9th)