Pius Paschke put his fist in the air, his teammates clapped and around 15,000 spectators enthusiastically celebrated their “ski jumping pope” in the yellow jersey: With another coup, the 34-year-old whiz kid also rocked the World Cup in Titisee-Neustadt. “Pius the Fourth” is now “Pius the Fifth” – and there is no end in sight to the triumphant march two weeks before the Four Hills Tournament.
“What’s happening right now is crazy,” said Paschke, who further extended his lead in the overall World Cup, on ZDF: “It’s just going well. I’m trying to stick to my stuff. But now I can always make it to the top Don’t explain it to me either.”
The quiet Upper Bavarian’s first World Cup victory was a sensation in December 2023 – now the triumphs are almost everyday life. Paschke also won at the fourth stop of the World Cup winter – after Lillehammer, Kuusamo and Wisla, now also at Titisee; he has four season and five career victories. “You can’t help but be amazed,” said Severin Freund, ZDF expert and former world champion.
After jumps of 144.0 and 138.0 m from the Hochfirstschanze, the Upper Bavarian from Kiefersfelden was well ahead of the Swiss Gregor Deschwanden (287.7) and Daniel Tschofenig from Austria (281.7) with 294.1 points. Andreas Wellinger (280.0) narrowly missed the podium in fourth place.
Paschke follows in Schmitt’s footsteps
Paschke was there for the sixth time in the seventh individual competition of the season. Only in Wellinger’s demolition victory in the second Kuusamo competition did he come seventh. At the same time, the late starter set a German record: Only Martin Schmitt had already won four competitions in the 1998/99 season before the start of the Four Hills Tournament. Paschke is likely to be the top favorite to travel to the first highlight of the season from December 29th.
The other DSV eagles behind Paschke and Wellinger are currently not among the absolute elite. Karl Geiger jumped solidly with 14th place. Markus Eisenbichler, who was last eliminated in the first round three times in a row, reached the final this time and improved with 21st place.
Stephan Leyhe ended up in 24th place after a weak second jump. Youngster Adrian Tittel scored a World Cup point in 30th place, while Philipp Raimund (Oberstdorf) is still in the slump and missed the second round in 34th place.
But all of this made Paschke’s recent gala forgettable. He had previously won the “Super Team” competition on Friday as a duo with Wellinger and ensured a tailor-made German start in the World Cup. “I’m certainly in this flow state, as they call it,” he told the evening newspaper.
There is no end to the flow in sight. On Sunday (4 p.m./ZDF and Eurosport) there will be an individual competition in Titisee-Neustadt, and the following weekend we will go to Engelberg (Switzerland) for the tour dress rehearsal. Paschke is prepared.