Opening of the Four Hills Tournament: Geiger fails in the qualification

It was a bitter few minutes in the Oberstdorf arena for Karl Geiger: The five-time ski jumping world champion had a failed start to the Four Hills Tournament at his place of residence and had to watch his first competition in Oberstdorf. In the qualification, Geiger didn’t get beyond 106.5 meters and only ended up in 53rd place. His DSV colleague Philipp Raimund, on the other hand, finished the qualification in second place.

“That’s a sentence with an X, that’s pretty bitter,” said Geiger, deeply disappointed, at the ARD microphone immediately after the jump. He was particularly unhappy with the timing of the jump. “You have to accept that, it doesn’t help,” he said. In the interview zone, the 32-year-old later added: “That was a clean grab. It really annoys me.”

Philipp Raimund, on the other hand, was not impressed by the crowd of 15,500 spectators at the ski jump in the Allgäu and kept the hope of the German part of the audience alive for the first overall tour victory by a DSV athlete in 24 years. “Phenomenal,” he called the atmosphere. The 25-year-old jumped 132.5 meters and was only beaten by the Slovenian top favorite Domen Prevc, who flew 139.5 meters. Third place went to defending champion Daniel Tschofenig from Austria.

Andreas Wellinger jumps 117 meters – that’s enough for the competition

In addition to Raimund, Felix Hoffmann (12th place), Pius Paschke (21st place), Andreas Wellinger (39th place), Constantin Schmid (44th place) and Luca Roth (46th place) are also qualified for the final of the best 50 athletes this Monday (4.30 p.m./ARD and Eurosport). Wellinger, who like Geiger was suffering from a form crisis, did not seem satisfied with his 117-meter set, but unlike his colleagues, he made it into the competition. “This hurts all of our souls,” said former ski jumper Sven Hannawald about Geiger’s misery.

By midday and in wonderful sunshine, thousands of people had already populated the core of the picturesque town in the Allgäu. The 2021 World Cup arena is expected to be sold out on Monday. Oberstdorf is followed by the New Year’s competition on January 1st in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The last German overall winner on the tour to date was Hannawald in 2002.