Ski jumping Olympic dress rehearsal: Eisenbichler curses, Geiger shines
Wind chaos, falls and a prominent Corona fall. The last ski jumping weekend before the Winter Games is spectacular. Germany’s best jumper can be happy about a strong finish.
Willingen – Markus Eisenbichler cursed without restraint. "It pisses me off that you just can’t wait", said the emotional Bavarian after his eleventh place at the Olympic dress rehearsal of the ski jumpers in Willingen.
"Shit there", Eisenbichler exclaimed in an interview with ZDF. The 30-year-old was terribly upset about having to jump in the second round in difficult conditions. Quite different was the mood of his buddy Karl Geiger. The athlete from Oberstdorf said goodbye with a second place towards Beijing and recaptured the yellow jersey of the overall World Cup leader.
"Today was really a cool competition – again two good jumps", summed up Geiger. With his flights to 139.5 and 140 meters he only had to admit defeat to the Norwegian winner Marius Lindvik. Third place went to Slovenia’s Cene Prevc ahead of Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi, who was thus overtaken again by Geiger in the overall standings.
"It was again a pretty turbulent competition", said national coach Stefan Horngacher and added: "Karl’s performance was again very good." The Austrian said about Eisenbichler: "Markus also made good jumps. The last one was unfortunately under difficult conditions." Eisenbichler landed already after 115.5 meters. After the first round and a jump to 144 meters the athlete from Siegsdorf was still in third place.
Difficult weather conditions
On a crazy World Cup weekend with wind chaos and several falls, both German top jumpers had to accept a mood dampener the day before in windy and rainy Upland. Geiger and Eisenbichler had bad luck with the changing conditions and were far away from the fight for the podium places.
In the competition, which was canceled after the first round, Geiger finished only 19th. Eisenbichler finished in 29th place. However, this is not very meaningful with regard to Beijing because of the different conditions of the jumpers, just like Eisenbichler’s jump in the second round on Sunday.
At the end of the Willingen days made it from Horngachers team in local hero Stephan Leyhe (17.), Andreas Wellinger (22.) and Severin Freund, the 24. three more athletes will be in the World Cup points. Pius Paschke and Constantin Schmid were eliminated after the first round. The two are different from Olympic champions Freund and Wellinger in China. "I am really angry because this should not have happened", Schmid said about his jump to only 105 meters.
Abort after one run
In the women’s event, which was the first time they had competed on the huge hill, Katharina Althaus won two second places. Due to strong winds, the competitions on Saturday and Sunday were cancelled after one round each.
Completely opposite feelings within a very short time experienced the Austrian Marita Kramer. The overall World Cup leader won the first individual competition and then received a positive Corona test result. Whether the outstanding jumper of this winter will still make it to Beijing is an open question.
Selina Freitag also wants to be there. The Saxon caused a moment of shock with a spectacular fall, but did not injure herself more seriously.
This Monday, the jumpers will set off for Beijing. There they are challenged for the first time on Saturday on the spectacular Olympic jumping hill.