World champion against world champion, former Oberstdorf winner against former Oberstdorf winner: Such duels only occur at the Four Hills Tournament – and even then only rarely.
At the start of the tour in Allgäu on Thursday (4:30 p.m. / ZDF and Eurosport) it’s that time again: Germany’s top man Karl Geiger meets Austria’s top jumper Stefan Kraft. “Unfortunately, I got a bit of a bad co-partner. If the jumps stay like this, I don’t need to piss my shirt off,” said Geiger.
The fact that there is now a duel between the jump greats was not due to Geiger, who was on target in seventh place in the qualification. But rather in strength, which was only 44th on a weak day. The 29-year-old violinist can even gain something from the difficult task.
“That can even be an incentive. He always jumps damn well in Oberstdorf. But I still have reserves,” said the man from the Allgäu. After his previous performances in the World Cup, Kraft is one of the narrow favorites, Geiger is more of an extended one.
Such duels are known in the history of the tour, especially from the times of Sven Hannawald. During his triumph in 2001/02, the former ski jumping star skipped qualification four times and started with number 50 against the winner of the preliminary round. Something like that is no longer possible 21 years later because nobody is fixed for the competition anymore.