Two jumps, two opponents, 66 points and a large crystal globe – at the final performance of the ski jumpers next weekend in Planica, Slovenia, everything revolves around the duel between Ryoyu Kobayashi and Karl Geiger and victory in the overall World Cup.
the initial situation
Before the final two individual competitions on Friday (March 25th, 2022) and Sunday (March 27th, 2022), the Japanese Olympic champion in Beijing leads with 1,544 points ahead of the German four-time world champion Geiger, who has collected 1,478 points so far. In the two final individual competitions, 200 points are awarded again. Kobayashi is in pole position when he reaches for his second big crystal ball after 2019, Geiger reaches for his first victory in the overall World Cup.
Kobayashi vs. Geiger – The Season
Both the Japanese and the Oberstdorfer will long for the end of the season. The end of a long and turbulent season culminating in the Olympic Games – in the middle of a corona pandemic. Kobayashi missed two competitions at the beginning of the season due to a Covid-19 infection, but has been wearing the yellow leader jersey for a few weeks. Geiger wore yellow for a long time, only at the end of February did he have to give up the coveted shirt.
The bigger successes of the season are clearly with the Japanese: He won the Four Hills Tournament for the second time and won individual gold on the normal hill and silver on the large hill at the Olympics in Beijing. Geiger could not fulfill his tour ambitions as fourth overall, in Beijing he won bronze on the large hill and with the team.
Kobayashi vs. Geiger – The Form
At the moment, it seems, both are on the go with the reserve tank, their strength is dwindling. They were last on the podium at the beginning of March, in Lillehammer Kobayashi was second and Geiger third. Since then, the absolute top results have been missing. Mistakes creep into Kobayashi’s otherwise perfect jumps, for example he only came 13th at the Ski Flying World Championships in Vikersund.
Geiger also repeatedly ended up outside the top ten, in Vikersund he was unable to defend his World Championship title in ski flying in eighth place, on his home hill in Oberstdorf he recently only came in ninth twice. Above all, Geiger lacked the exact timing and the necessary aggressiveness when jumping. “Unfortunately I’m not completely satisfied”, Geiger said after ski flying in Oberstdorf. National coach Stefan Horngacher added: “We didn’t achieve what we wanted.”
Who likes Planica better?
Hard to say. “Fortunately, Karl didn’t lose terribly in the overall World Cup. Now we’re going to Planica and hope that the hill suits us better – based on experience, yes.”, Horngacher looks back on the season finale on the Letalnica in north-western Slovenia. Geiger gets along very well with the ski flying hill in Planica. In the past two years he has made it onto the podium in all six jumps, winning three times in a row.
But Kobayashi is also located on the second largest ski flying hill in the world, in four of the last six competitions he made it onto the podium here. In addition, the 25-year-old holds the hill record of 252.0 meters from 2019.