Mixed bankruptcy streak continues
Karl Geiger blunders and Germany smears
03/04/2022 7:32 p.m
Almost a month after the farce in Beijing, things are not going well for the German mixed selection when jumping at the legendary Holmenkollen. Karl Geiger slips up and later asks for forgiveness. At least they won’t be disqualified. Fate befalls only a different nation this time.
After his fateful jump, Karl Geiger looked contritely at the evening sky in Oslo. “Today I really missed the mark,” said the German pilot after the disappointing fifth place in the mixed competition in Oslo and asked his colleagues Markus Eisenbichler, Katharina Althaus and Juliane Seyfarth for forgiveness: “I’m sorry, because in the team that twice as bitter”.
Geiger had only flown 107.5 m in the first round at the legendary Holmenkollen, until then the DSV quartet had been in second place behind the eventual winner Slovenia. “I’m sorry for Karl, but something like that can happen,” said Eisenbichler on ZDF: “I don’t blame him at all.”
In the second round, Geiger at least increased to 125.5 m and can still hope to win the Raw Air series, which will be continued on Saturday. The man from Oberstdorf is currently in third place there. Seyfarth (110.5 m and 95.5) also dropped a lot of points on Friday. “Yesterday got on my nerves,” said Seyfarth, who was disqualified in the individual on Thursday.
At least not disqualified
On the other hand, former world champion Eisenbichler impressed with two jumps of 128.5 m, as did Althaus, second at the Olympics (122.0 and 125.0 m), who, like Seyfarth, has just returned from a Corona break. “I tried to make two good jumps, but I would have liked to have jumped even further, I’ll be honest,” said Eisenbichler.
It was only the fifth time in World Cup history that a mixed race was on the program, and for the fifth time series world champion Germany (832.9 points) did not land on the podium. The victory among the only eight teams went to the outstanding Olympic champion Slovenia (942.9) with Timi Zajc, Lovro Kos, Ursa Bogataj and Nika Kriznar, the leader in the Raw Air, ahead of Austria (867.7) and Norway (866.9) .
After all: 25 days after the farce in the Olympic mixed, when Germany and three other top nations were taken out of the medal fight because of non-compliant suits, the competition went almost smoothly. This time “only” Finland was disqualified.
The results were not included in the overall ranking of the five-day Raw Air Tour. There it continues on Saturday with the competitions for women (1 p.m.) and men (5 p.m. / ZDF and Eurosport). Geiger in particular is still well in the fight for the prize money of 35,000 euros as third behind Stefan Kraft (Austria) and the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi.