Wednesday, December 29, 2021
Start of the Four Hills Tournament
Geiger missed the podium in the thrilling rain jumping
In the first competition of the 70th Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf, the German athletes are doing well, but it’s not enough for a podium place. Overall victory is still possible, especially for Karl Geiger. The Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi triumphs with a huge leap.
Karl Geiger swore briefly, let his shoulders sag, but then Germany’s best ski jumper clapped his teammates fiercely: In a thrilling opening competition of the 70th Four Hills Tournament Geiger flew past the podium in pouring rain in his homeland in Oberstdorf, finishing fifth Victory of the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi but fought for a good starting position. The dream of the first German overall victory in the ski jumping spectacle since Sven Hannawald 20 years ago lives on.
“At first I was a bit disappointed. But overall it is okay,” said Geiger after a tough fight in front of the empty ranks in the 27,000-spectator arena because of the corona pandemic: “The tension was greater than expected Jumps were good, but not as good as I can. ” After the first round, last year’s winner from Schattenberg was still in third place. “That was the first of four competitions, everything is still possible,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher.
Kobayashi, tour winner of 2018/19, stormed with a dream flight to 141.0 meters in the second round from fifth place to his 23rd World Cup victory, he sat with 302.0 points ahead of the Norwegians Halvor Egner Granerud (299.2) and Robert Johansson (298.6) through. Geiger jumped 131.5 and 131.0 meters (295.9 points). Almost three and a half meters behind Kobayashi, he is within striking distance before the New Year’s competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. “The starting position is still good,” said Geiger.
However, already after the first tour stop it became clear that Geiger will become the German sole entertainer in the fight for an absolute top position. In addition to the number one, only three other DSV eagles made it into the second round in Oberstdorf – seven German jumpers competed for qualification on Tuesday. The six-time world champion Markus Eisenbichler jumped to seventh place in the competition with a strong second round, but is already more than 20 points behind Kobayashi. “The second jump makes me feel positive, it’s going in the right direction,” said Eisenbichler. Stephan Leyhe came in ninth, Pius Paschke came in 26th.
Team World Champion Severin Freund experienced a very bitter comeback in the World Cup. The veteran, who had won his tour ticket through the Continental Cup, showed a strong 124.5 meters in the first round and was in ninth place, but was disqualified because of an irregular suit. “It’s a shame because the jump was really worth something,” said the 33-year-old, who triumphed on the Schattenberg in 2015.
For another prominent jumper, too, all hopes for a top tour placement were dashed: Defending champion Kamil Stoch from Poland was clearly eliminated in the first round, so the 34-year-old already has no chance of his fourth gold eagle. Fatih Arda Ipcioglu, who was the first Turkish ski jumper to collect World Cup points and finished 29th, caused a surprise. In addition to Freund, Constantin Schmid, who lost his knockout duel against the Japanese Yukiya Sato by 0.2 points, also missed the second round. Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger was already eliminated in the qualification.
In the previous year, Geiger had experienced a little ski jumping fairy tale in his home town. Shortly before the tour, he was infected with Corona, one day before the qualification his start in Oberstdorf was questionable – and then he practically won out of quarantine on the Schattenberg. It is almost a bad German tradition that it ultimately came in second in the tour rating and not the overall victory. Since 1992, DSV-Adler have won ten times in Oberstdorf – only Hannawald took the overall victory.