“It just annoys me right now. It’s bitter that it’s back now … Well, it doesn’t matter“, he broke off the sentence in the middle of the Sportschau interview and first had to take a deep breath. His eyes looked empty – full of disappointment that the Four Hills Tournament was not going to go optimally again.
The hoped-for tour victory for Geiger becomes fourth place
Despite the disappointment, Karl Geiger recovered and finished fourth in the Innsbruck substitute competition in Bischofshofen. “Now we are moving forward“, he said and remained confident. One day later, his smile finally returned, as did his broad grin. In the fourth tournament, he flew 140.5 and 132 meters – that meant third place in the daily standings and rank four in the overall classification.
“It was a difficult tour emotionally. I have to let that sink in first and then see that we can somehow do better next year“, he said in the Sportschau interview.
Markus Eisenbichler started the tour as an outsider and looking for his top form. But his doubts turned more and more into self-confidence. After seventh place in the opening event, he did a great job in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Only 0.2 points behind he had to admit defeat to the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi and was finally able to cheer again: “For me in particular, when I take a good jump, the emotions come out, and that’s a good thing“, explained Markus Eisenbichler.”But you should also get angry for a bad jump, you can improve yourself.“
After eighth place in the catch-up competition in Bischofshofen, he really let go of his anger after the fourth tournament jump. “Too late“, he shouted loudly into the camera after his failed jump in the second round, knocking his hands on his helmet. With that he missed the still possible jump on the tour podium and finished fifth.
Friend with half the Olympic standard, but lacking consistency
Third-best German in the overall ranking was Stephan Leyhe in eleventh place. For the ski jumper from SC Willingen it was the first tour after he survived the cruciate ligament rupture. He finished the first two competitions in the top ten, showed consistent performance and was satisfied with himself. The second half of the tour with ranks 20 and 25 was somewhat disappointing.
Severin Freund, who returned to the World Cup, experienced a roller coaster of emotions: In Oberstdorf he was disqualified for a non-compliant suit, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen he was 28th, in the catch-up jumping in Bischofshofen he secured half the Olympic standard for one day with twelfth place later he missed the second round.
That meant 31st place in the overall ranking. His performances were not consistent enough, just like those of Andreas Wellinger. He finished 32nd overall. Constantin Schmid and Pius Paschke came in 33 and 37.
National coach Stefan Horngacher looked a bit kinked in the Sportschau interview after the final in Bischofshofen: “The tour didn’t go one hundred percent the way we imagined. That just happens a lot, especially in our sport. In the sum of all things, you lose too many points.”
Nevertheless, he was satisfied, he said and looked straight ahead: “The Olympic Games are coming, the Ski Flying World Championships – there are still a lot of competitions. We just have to keep working hard.”
Status: 07.01.2022, 06:00