Karl Geiger waved both hands and shook his head angrily: The top German ski jumper is still looking for his form after the second World Cup weekend of the winter. After a jump of just 122.5 meters, the man from Oberstdorf, who is actually known for his consistency, was already over after the first round in Ruka, Finland, covered in deep snow.
For the second time in the fourth competition of the season, the 29-year-old has not received any World Cup points. His teammates are also jumping behind the absolute world leaders. As the best German, Andreas Wellinger ended up in seventh place in the shared victory of the Austrian Stefan Kraft and the Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud.
Geiger’s problem: Large fluctuations in performance
Basically, Geiger has not forgotten how to ski jump at a very high level – he also showed that in the far north. The day before he finished sixth. In qualifying, he flew 148 meters. Only Granerud jumped further and set a hill record with his brilliant jump of 150.5 meters.
“The qualifying jump was extremely cool. It was great fun,” said Geiger. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to confirm that in the competition. That’s annoying, of course.” The problem with Geiger is the large fluctuations in performance so far in the young season. His placings so far: 34, 17, 6, 33. The Olympic bronze medalist in the large hill individual in Beijing lags far behind his own claims.
Despite the largely unsatisfactory competition results, the man from the Allgäu emphasized the positive experiences of the weekend. “It’s going in the right direction. I’ve already had a few individual jumps that have worked really well. It’s still a little while before that’s consistently available. But it’s a good sign that they’re coming .”
Wellinger also gave a good sign with his jump of 143 meters in the second round on Sunday. “It was at least a happy ending,” said the 27-year-old. The second best German was Pius Paschke, who finished eighth. Markus Eisenbichler ended up in tenth place, Constantin Schmid was 21st and Stephan Leyhe was 32nd.
The journey to cold Finland had already started anything but optimally for the German jumpers. Because the luggage didn’t arrive on time, even the qualification that was originally planned for Friday was postponed to Saturday. The team had to do without valuable training jumps.
Not the team of national coach Stefan Horngacher is currently shining, but above all jumpers from Poland, Austria, Slovenia and Norway. In the overall standings, Poland’s Dawid Kubacki defended his lead with sixth place. The 2020 Four Hills Tournament winner is just ahead of Kraft. The best German is Paschke in eleventh place. The jumpers now have a weekend break from competition before continuing in Titisee-Neustadt.
