Four Hills Tournament
National coach after New Year’s disappointment: “Don’t dig in”
Stefan Horngacher is the coach of the German ski jumpers. photo
© Daniel Karmann/dpa
The Germans currently have no chance against the ski jumping world elite. Geiger and Co. are far behind when it comes to the New Year’s competition. The national coach remains optimistic.
After the disappointing New Year’s competition of his top athletes, national ski jumping coach Stefan Horngacher still sees a chance of a podium finish at the Four Hills Tournament.
“It would be nice if we could still finish on the podium. That would be a great goal,” said the 53-year-old. In Garmisch-Partenkirchen, his best jumper, Karl Geiger, was only eleventh. In the overall standings of the Four Hills Tournament, he slipped to fifth place. The leading Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud is probably out of reach for the man from Oberstdorf. Even in third place, the gap is the equivalent of a good nine meters.
“Of course we would like to continue to attack in the overall standings, but the gap is really big,” said Geiger. As his goal for the Bergisel competition in Innsbruck on Wednesday, he said: “I would like to travel on to Bischofshofen with a smiling face.”
Coach Horngacher also looked at other highlights this winter. “The season is still long,” said the Austrian. “We’re not going to dig in now.” The Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica, Slovenia, are scheduled for February and March.