The third competition of the Four Hills Tournament in Innsbruck is coming up. DSV sports director Horst Hüttel talks about the performance of the Germans – and about Austria.
Now the hot final phase of the Four Hills Tournament begins: After Oberstdorf and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the ski jumping aces are currently stopping in Innsbruck and then in Bischofshofen. The competition will take place on the Bergiselschanze on Saturday (from 1.30 p.m. in the t-online live ticker). In the qualification on Friday, an Austrian was strong and also a German – but not Pius Paschke (you can read more about the “mega” jump here).
While German hopes were still high before the tour due to Paschke’s brilliant performances, they have now dwindled somewhat after the first two competitions. Paschke narrowly missed the podium in fourth place in Oberstdorf. In Garmisch he came ninth. The DSV-Adler is currently in sixth place in the overall ranking. The ski jumping highlight is currently dominated by the Austrians.
In the overall standings, Daniel Tschofenig leads ahead of Jan Hörl and Stefan Kraft. The Swiss Gregor Deschwanden is in fourth place, the Norwegian Johann André Forfang in fifth place. There has also recently been criticism of the Austrians from Norway – the Norwegian athletes found their dominance suspicious.
However, DSV World Cup sports director Horst Hüttel sees things differently in an interview with t-online. The former Nordic combined athlete explains: “We cannot agree with the statements of our Norwegian colleagues. And we don’t want to agree with them either. The fact is that all athletes who stand on the podium must have excellent material, otherwise you won’t be there .”
Hüttel adds: “In the past it has quickly happened that the focus has been placed on the material factor. Austria is currently clearly the dominant nation, but there are several reasons for this. But we have full confidence in the FIS that everything will be examined in great detail here . We assume that everything is going well.”
ARD expert and former tour winner Sven Hannawald struck a similar tone. When the Norwegian Forfang showed a technically very good jump in the qualification in Innsbruck, Hannawald said: “It’s super clean. That’s why there are no excuses for Granerud in terms of material, it’s pure technique.”
Halvor Egner Granerud, for example, recently told the local TV station NRK: “If I had been Gregor Deschwanden or Pius Paschke, I would probably have been quite suspicious. It is strange and very unusual for a nation to dominate the way it does now. ” Former Olympic ski jumping champion Maren Lundby said on the NRK microphone: “That’s suspicious. They were good all year long and as soon as the Four Hills Tournament is coming up, they are even better. There must be something there.” Neither Granerud nor Lundby elaborated more specifically on their statements.
In an interview with t-online, Horst Hüttel emphasizes that the Austrians Tschofenig, Hörl and Kraft already landed on the podium at the World Cup jumping in Engelberg, which is often called a tour dress rehearsal. Tschofenig was also able to prevail against the competition in Wisla (Poland). In Ruka (Finland) Paschke won, but Hörl and Kraft took the places directly behind.
In an interview with t-online, Hüttel also refers to the small fluctuations in ski jumping: “It has always been the case that there are certain dynamics in a season. This will continue. Ski jumping is always subject to certain phases in a season. That is over In my opinion, it’s also part of the sport of ski jumping, and Austria is doing that very well at the moment.”
However, the DSV sports director also knows that the German jumpers can no longer be found at the top of the rankings after the first two tour stops. Hüttel still hopes that the Germans’ “fateful ski jump” on Bergisel will be a lucky charm this time: “We are out of the favorite position. Of course we want to perform well again in both competitions.”