The Ski Flying World Championships ended happily for the German team. Karl Geiger and Co. landed on the podium after a dramatic finale. A sensational flight by the final jumper was decisive.
The German ski jumpers led by Karl Geiger won the silver medal in the team competition at the Ski Flying World Championships in Vikersund, Norway. Geiger, who finished eighth in the individual, secured second place with the last German jump of a massive 238.0 m.
When asked how he managed this flight, Geiger said on the ARD microphone: “I don’t know either. I knew that everything was relatively tight and I needed a good jump. Then I put everything on one card and full held on.”
Winner Slovenia in another league
The deficit of the DSV-Adler, who scored 1583.5 points, on the superior winners from Slovenia (1711.5) was still huge with the equivalent of 106 meters. Norway with the newly crowned world champion Marius Lindvik took bronze (1559.6) ahead of Austria with world record holder Stefan Kraft. The DSV-Adler have never won the title as a team, now they have won silver for the fourth time in the last five editions.
Geiger continued to improve and flew a good 222.0 m in the first round. The German record holder Markus Eisenbichler (Siegsdorf) dropped a few meters in the first round with 211.5, then fought his way to 213.0 m. Andreas Wellinger (Ruhpolding) shone with a strong 226.5 m in the first round and 206.5 in the whole difficult difficult conditions in the final. Experienced Severin Freund (Rastbüchl), 2014 World Champion in Harrachov in the Czech Republic, dropped slightly with 211.5 and 201.0 m.