The wind once again did everything it could do. Just before Pius Paschke’s second jump, he turned in a direction that was significantly more comfortable for the athletes. And then the 34-year-old German model jumper did everything he could do again this winter. He showed a truly excellent attempt and flew down to an impressive 143.5 meters – and thus further than all other competitors in the second round of the New Year’s competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. But this lecture didn’t help him much anymore.
Because Paschke’s first attempt was a complete failure. He had only reached 129 meters. In the combination of the two jumps, that was only enough for ninth place on the day. And above all, he lost a lot of points in the overall ranking. In sixth place at the halfway point of the tour, he is now 25 points behind leader Daniel Tschofenig (Austria), who also secured the day’s victory in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The podium is also almost 17 points. And so Paschke now has to make a lot of effort or come up with a trick to get back in touch with this phase from early winter in which he was able to celebrate so many and such astonishing successes.
“My second was cool, unfortunately there was a small mistake in the first that had a big impact,” said Paschke after jumping: “Of course that’s a shame. But I don’t even look at the overall ranking. There are enough other people who do that.” And his teammate Karl Geiger, the best German starter in Garmisch in sixth place, assisted sympathetically: “That’s bitter. I actually lost it here once too. That’s not easy. There is simply more pressure on the boiler. Of course you want to win the thing, but it’s not given to you,” he said on ARD.
Paschke and his teammates started this Garmisch-Partenkirchen competition with such high hopes and expectations. No German ski jumper has won the New Year’s competition at the Four Hills Tournament for 23 years. Year after year the organizers hope that this series will finally come to an end; this time it would of course have been particularly nice with a triumph for Paschke. Instead, the series continued – and the winners of the day were once again the Austrians, whose team boss Andreas Widhölzl teaches his jumpers technique and fitness and, above all, psychological finesse.
:The ski jumpers finally deserve a whole tour
As is often the case, the Austrian team seems inspired by this small winter trip through Germany and Austria, which has been going on for 73 years. At the start in Oberstdorf they managed to take all three podium places, this time they got three people into the top five: In addition to the winner Tschofenig, there were Michael Hayböck in third place and Jan Hörl in fifth – and that’s the whole story During the day, even a member of the Austrian team left the arena somewhat dissatisfied. After his victory in Oberstdorf, Stefan Kraft had to settle for eighth place and hand over the lead in the overall standings to his teammate Tschofenig. But everything is still prepared so that Team Austria can now continue its big party at its home games: at the competitions in Innsbruck (January 4th) and Bischofshofen (January 6th).
For the team from Germany, which had just become somewhat disillusioned, the start of the year ended with a few glimmers of hope. Coach Stefan Horngacher has a small group of talents who may soon be able to strengthen the team. Despite the competition, the way we approach each other is such that the team always maintains a confidential relationship – just like in previous years. And in addition to the disappointed Paschke, there were also a few jumpers who finished the New Year’s competition quite satisfied.
Andreas Wellinger, for example, has apparently regained his composure after a few difficult weeks. After 20th place in Oberstdorf, he now landed in twelfth place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. And above all, there was this Karl Geiger, who had climbed out of the ski jump arena’s exit with a quiet expression on his face for most of the fall. He has grinned and laughed more in the last three days than anyone else in the German team. On Wednesday he managed two such good sets that he not only came sixth in the daily ranking, but also improved to eighth place in the overall ranking.
This is also the motto with which national coach Horngacher goes into the third and fourth competitions. “You don’t need to think much about the overall standings,” he said: “It’s important for us to now look at the individual competitions. Maybe we’ll win one.”