Willingen (dpa) – Markus Eisenbichler cursed uncontrollably. “It pisses me off that you just can’t wait,” said the emotional Bavarian after his eleventh place at the Olympic dress rehearsal for ski jumping in Willingen.
“Shit there,” Eisenbichler shouted in an interview with ZDF. The 30-year-old was terribly upset that he had to jump in difficult conditions in the second round. The mood with his buddy Karl Geiger was completely different. The man from Oberstdorf said goodbye with a second place towards Beijing and regained the yellow jersey of the leader in the overall World Cup.
“Today was a really cool competition – two good jumps again,” summed up Geiger. With his jumps of 139.5 and 140 meters he only had to admit defeat to the Norwegian winner Marius Lindvik. The Slovenian Cene Prevc was third in front of the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi, who was again overtaken by Geiger in the overall ranking.
“It was another pretty turbulent competition,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher, adding: “Karl’s performance was very good again.” The Austrian said to Eisenbichler: “Markus also made good jumps. Unfortunately, the last one was under difficult conditions.” Eisenbichler landed after 115.5 meters. After the first round and a jump of 144 meters, the man from Siegsdorf was still in third place.
Difficult weather conditions
On a crazy World Cup weekend with wind chaos and several falls, both German top jumpers had to put up with a dampener in the windy and rainy upland the day before. Geiger and Eisenbichler were unlucky with the changing conditions and were far from fighting for the podium.
In the competition, which was canceled after the first round, Geiger only took 19th place, Eisenbichler ended up in 29th place. However, with a view to Beijing, this does not have much significance due to the different requirements of the jumpers, just like Eisenbichler’s jump in the second round On Sunday.
At the end of the Willingen days, three more athletes from Horngacher’s team, local hero Stephan Leyhe (17th), Andreas Wellinger (22nd) and Severin Freund, who was 24th, made it into the World Cup points. Pius Paschke and Constantin Schmid, on the other hand, were eliminated after the first round. Unlike the Olympic champions Freund and Wellinger, the two are in China. “I’m really angry because it didn’t have to be,” said Schmid about his jump of just 105 meters.
Abandoned after one pass
Among the women, who were there for the first time on the huge ski jump, Katharina Althaus convinced with two second places. Due to strong winds, the competitions on Saturday and Sunday were canceled after one round each.
The Austrian Marita Kramer experienced completely opposite feelings within a very short time. The leader in the overall World Cup won the first individual competition and then received a positive corona test result. Whether this winter’s outstanding jumper will still make it to Beijing remains to be seen.
Selina Freitag also wants to be there. The Saxon caused a moment of shock with a spectacular fall, but was not seriously injured.
This Monday, the jumpers set off for Beijing. There they are challenged for the first time on Saturday on the spectacular Olympic hill.