Karl Geiger started the last ski jumping weekend of the winter with a poor qualification.
The man from Oberstdorf sailed 219.0 m in the preliminary round for flying on Friday (2:00 p.m./ARD and Eurosport) in Planica, Slovenia, and only finished 17th. He was six places behind the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi, with whom he is fighting a duel for the overall World Cup triumph.
A near-fall by the Austrian Jan Hörl had previously caused qualifying to be postponed to the afternoon. Due to the high temperatures, a film of water had formed in the inrun track, Hörl lost his balance in training just before the jump and only avoided a fall with skill.
Geiger, who became ski flying world champion in Planica in 2020 and also won two World Cup flies at Letalnica the following March, still has a chance of winning the big crystal globe: The 29-year-old is 66 points behind Kobayashi before the last two individual competitions of the season, 200 points are still up for grabs.
The winner of the qualification was Anze Lanisek from Slovenia. As the best German, Constantin Schmid took twelfth place. Markus Eisenbichler (18th), Andreas Wellinger (30th) and Severin Freund (34th) also made it into the top 40, which Stephan Leyhe just missed in 41st.