Geiger is weak in Garmisch
Wellinger’s powerful flight is not enough to win the qualification
December 31, 2023, 3:00 p.m
After his opening victory at the Four Hills Tournament, Andreas Wellinger also impressed in Garmisch-Partenkirchen: In qualifying for the New Year’s competition, the German delivered by far the longest jump, but the landing cost him the top spot. Karl Geiger ends up far behind.
Andreas Wellinger once again presented himself in strong form in the qualification for the New Year’s competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The leader in the overall tour ranking jumped significantly further than everyone else with 139 meters and thus took second place. Only a messy landing cost the German the top spot. Anze Lanisek secured victory in the qualification in front of 8,000 spectators. The Slovenian achieved the second best distance of the day with 134 meters. Tour favorite Stefan Kraft made it to sixth place on the Olympic hill, which he didn’t particularly like.
“It’s extremely constant. That’s fun,” said Wellinger on ZDF. “I know what I have to do.” The 28-year-old added: “I’m having fun, I’m in a good mood. So keep going!” National coach Stefan Horngacher was also very satisfied with the performance of his best jumper. But he still sees room for improvement in one point. “He had a bit of trouble landing. We’ll have to look at the video again. We’ll fix that for tomorrow,” he said.
Wellinger won at the start of the tour on Friday in Oberstdorf. He carries the hopes of the German ski jumpers for the first overall victory of a compatriot on the tour since Sven Hannawald’s triumph in 2002. The top jumpers did not allow themselves to be put off by an unfamiliar obstacle: because the elevator was broken, they had to climb up to the jump on foot . Children from the local ski club helped them carry their skis.
In addition to Wellinger, the eight other German jumpers also qualified for the traditional event this Monday (2 p.m./ZDF and Eurosport and in the live ticker on ntv.de). However, Karl Geiger did not show his full potential with a jump of 122 meters and 35th place. “Today I skied extremely badly, it was just nothing,” said Geiger on ZDF. “Something’s not right” about the approach speed, “that’s out of character for me.” The second best German was Constantin Schmid in ninth place.