Finally on the podium: Just in time for the Four Hills Tournament, Karl Geiger ended the longest dry spell for German ski jumpers in twelve years in Titisee-Neustadt. Constantin Schmid and Stephan Leyhe are also convincing, but there are also two problem children.
Karl Geiger roared with delight and threw his fists through the Black Forest air. Rarely has Germany's best ski jumper celebrated a third place like that in Titisee-Neustadt. In the fifth competition of the season and just in time for the start of the Four Hills Tournament, the DSV-Adler recorded their first podium place - it last took that long twelve years ago. For the 29-year-old it was the 31st podium finish of his career. Geiger only showed more joy about third place at the 2022 Olympics after the most difficult days of his career. Before the start of the tour on December 29, he pushes himself into the group of co-favourites.
With 135.0 and 141.5 meters (269.2 points) on the Hochfirstschanze, he was only beaten by Slovenian Anze Lanisek (272.8) and Polish World Cup leader Dawid Kubacki (271.5). After the first run in extremely demanding wind conditions, Geiger was still in fourth place. Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud, who was leading at half-time, dropped back to fifth.
"I didn't really expect to get on the podium," said national coach Stefan Horngacher on ZDF: "We've more than achieved our goal. I'm very satisfied, Karl has worked his way back into his old form." The last time it took longer to get to the first podium was in the 2010/11 season. At that time, Severin Freund only made it onto the podium in the 14th competition - as the winner in Sapporo - after the turn of the year. The DSV-Adler also showed good things behind Geiger. After a difficult start to the season, Constantin Schmid convinced with seventh place, so five German jumpers have already achieved a top 10 place.
Former world champion Stephan Leyhe came in 15th and achieved his best result of the season. Markus Eisenbichler was again unable to use his great potential and finished 21st ahead of Pius Paschke. "I'm not in the best shape yet, the feeling is only slowly coming back," said six-time world champion Eisenbichler. Two-time Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger was eliminated in the first round. On Saturday (11.45 a.m./ZDF and Eurosport) the first mixed team competition of the season will take place in Titisee-Neustadt. Men's and women's individual competitions will be held on Sunday.
