Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf: Geiger narrowly missed podium in Granerud win

Halvor Egner Granerud took the lead in the fight for the golden eagle. At the 71st Four Hills Tournament on Thursday, December 29, 2022 in Oberstdorf, the Norwegian was celebrated as the first winner.

On the Schattenbergschanze, the 26-year-old soared to success in front of 25,000 euphoric spectators with personal bests of 142.5 and 139 meters. Second place went to Poland’s Piotr Zyla, while Dawid Kubacki (also from Poland), who was the overall World Cup leader, finished third. Granerud performed well in the overall standings with 312.4 points. Zyla follows with minus 13.4 points, Kubacki is 17.5 points behind.

The Wellinger duel against Geiger boils the mood

The good performances of Andreas Wellinger and Karl Geiger also made the atmosphere boil. With 135 meters, Welllinger was able to put an exclamation point on the first jump. Local hero Geiger even threw 136.5 yards, but was 2.5 points short. From fourth and fifth place, it was even possible for both of them to make the leap forward.

The internal duel of the German ski eagles added excitement to the final. Geiger had the better flight, added 134 yards and passed Wellinger (132m). However, the man from Oberstdorf narrowly missed out on the podium in fourth place. In the general classification, Geiger is 18.8 points behind Granerud, Wellinger is sixth and 27.2 points behind.

National coach Stefan Horngacher was very pleased with the performance of his athletes. “A real respect for Karl and Andi Wellinger for what they delivered under these pressure conditions“, greeted the 53-year-old player.

Raimund confidently jumps into the top 15

With Philipp Raimund, the DSV had a “diamond in the rough”, as Horngacher not only calls it, at the start. The 22-year-old took 14th place on his tour debut, confident and scamming. “I’m new and I bring some fresh air“, Raimund said confidently into the microphone. He was happy with his jumps and “also a bit of pride” on himself. He announced briskly:There’s always a better way“.

His teammate Stephan Leyhe also did well at the start, but fell three places to 20th.

Schmid disappointed with the result

Constantin Schmid was only able to show 111.5 meters in knockout mode, but he won his duel and was therefore allowed to jump over the ski jump a second time. The 23-year-old managed to increase to 122 yards. However, the man from Oberaudorf was not satisfied. “It wasn’t my plan. Check it off and do it better next time,” a visibly disappointed Schmid said in the ZDF interview.

Eisenbichler loses and indicates the exit of the tour

Markus Eisenbichler, who had to accept a season low, was not so lucky. The Siegsdorfer lost his duel with the Turkish Fatih Arda İpcioğlu. Even on the lucky loser, his 115 meters did not reach the final round. “It’s hard. So you really think things are going up“, analyzed the Siegsdorfer emotionally as usual. “Of course I’m very disappointed“Eisenbichler even hinted at a possible exit from the tour.”The constitution is bad in the back and in the front. I need to talk to the coaches if it still makes sense to keep torturing myself“.

Pius Paschke also made a mistake and landed a disappointing 110 yards after a jump error. He was also prematurely eliminated from the competition.