Halvor Egner Granerud has won the qualification for the start of the Four Hills Tournament. The ski jumper from Norway prevailed on the Schattenbergschanze in Oberstdorf ahead of Dawid Kubacki from Poland and Timi Zajc from Slovenia.

As the best German, local hero Karl Geiger qualified seventh for this Thursday’s competition (4:30 p.m. / ZDF and Eurosport). The 29-year-old jumped 129.5 meters. Winner Granerud managed a jump of 133.5 meters.

For the first time since the beginning of the Corona pandemic, numerous fans cheered on the jumpers at the prestigious event around the turn of the year. Already during the qualification, 16,000 spectators spread a relaxed atmosphere. “That was awesome today,” said Geiger. On Thursday, the arena is sold out with more than 25,000 fans. In the knockout duel, Geiger then meets the Austrian top jumper Stefan Kraft. “If I jump at the same level as today, I don’t have to worry,” said Geiger.

In addition to him, the other six German jumpers qualified for the competition of the best 50 athletes: Andreas Wellinger, Philipp Raimund, Pius Paschke, Constantin Schmid, Markus Eisenbichler and Stephan Leyhe.

However, Eisenbichler was not satisfied with his jump to 127.5 meters. “I had very good conditions and couldn’t take advantage of them,” said the 31-year-old on ZDF. “It just annoys me. I could just throw something together.”

The athletes from the team of national coach Stefan Horngacher are not among the top favorites this year. Geiger is the best in the overall World Cup rankings and is in seventh place.