And again no victory for the German ski jumpers: At the last tour jumping event in Bischofshofen, Karl Geiger narrowly missed first place. He started furiously. The overall ranking went to Überspringer Kobayashi.
The Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi won the 70th Four Hills Tournament of ski jumpers, but missed the hoped-for quadruple victory. On Thursday in Bischofshofen, the 25-year-old world-class athlete did not get past fifth, but it was still enough for the overall victory in front of the two Norwegians Marius Lindvik and Halvor Egner Granerud.
No win of the day despite taking the lead in the meantime
The winner of the day in Pongau was the Austrian Daniel Huber. Despite being in the lead and 140.5 meters in the first round, Karl Geiger had to be content with third place.
Geiger’s trainer, Stefan Horngacher, particularly struggled with his protégé’s second jump. “Unfortunately Karl was so late,” he said on the ARD microphone. Horngacher added: “It’s always a bit bitter. But he presented himself very well and did very good things on this tour.”
Kobayashi missed second quadruple victory
The German Sven Hannawald (2001/02), Poland’s Kamil Stoch (2017/18) and Kobayashi himself (2018/19) remain the only four-time winners of the Four Hills Tournament after the result in Bischofshofen.
Ryoyu Kobayashi convinced despite the missed record on all four hills of the 2021/22 tour. (Source: REUTERS / Lisi Niesner / Reuters)
Had Kobayashi performed the rare feat again, an entry in the history book would have been guaranteed. He still receives the 100,000 Swiss francs (around 96,000 euros).
DSV stars are still waiting for four hills success
20 years after the historic triumph of Hannawald, the German ski jumpers of national coach Stefan Horngacher have to wait for the longed-for title at the traditional event. Geiger and Markus Eisenbichler, who finished eighth of the day on Thursday, have been too inconsistent over the past ten days and have not achieved the top performances they had hoped for.
The two Germans thus took fourth and fifth place in the final accounts. Kobayashi couldn’t be beaten anyway.
The next season highlights are waiting
Even after the exhausting anniversary tour, the ski jumpers only have a day off. It will continue on Saturday, there are two more competitions in Bischofshofen on the program.
This is followed by further weekends in Zakopane, Poland, up to the Olympic Games in Beijing (February 4th to 20th) and two German home games in Titisee-Neustadt and Willingen. With his strong performances on the tour, Kobayashi also overtook the Allgäu violinist in the overall ranking and took over the yellow jersey.
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