Four Hills Tournament: These are the favorites and TV dates

Ski jumping
Four Hills Tournament: These are the favorites and TV dates

For the 70th time a winner is being sought at the Four Hills Tournament. The chances of a German ski jumper becoming overall champion after a long time are not bad at all. The biggest competitor could be a Japanese. A look at the favorites at the flight spectacle in Oberstdorf, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Innsbruck and Bischofshofen:

Karl Geiger: Geiger knows the ski jumping facility on the Schattenberg, where the first competition of the tour traditionally takes place on Wednesday, like hardly any other active jumper. The 28-year-old comes from the winter sports stronghold in the Allgäu and also lives there. Geiger is the most constant jumper in the team of national coach Stefan Horngacher this year and competes as the overall World Cup leader. The calm and balanced athlete demonstrated his class again at the dress rehearsal in Engelberg shortly before Christmas when he finished first and second. He is one of two top favorites.

Kobayashi may be Geiger’s greatest competitor

Ryoyu Kobayashi: The Japanese is the other. Kobayashi has already won the 2018/19 tour and won on all four hills at that time. The 25-year-old is again in very good shape this year and did not let himself be disturbed by a quarantine. Kobayashi had tested positive for the virus in Ruka, Finland, missed a competition there and had to sit out the entire World Cup weekend in Wisla, Poland. He then finished seventh, first, second and first. He is Geiger’s first pursuer.

Halvor Egner Granerud: The Norwegian was the outstanding jumper of the last World Cup winter. He won the overall World Cup with confidence, ahead of Markus Eisenbichler. This season, the 25-year-old has not been able to access his class that regularly, but he keeps flashing it. Granerud won the opening weekend in Nizhny Tagil, Russia, and made it onto the podium two more times. Last winter he led the tour after the first two competitions, but then ended up only in 15th place in Innsbruck and fell back. “I do think he’s itchy what happened there last year,” said Norway coach Alexander Stoeckl. Granerud has “still one bill open” with the tour.

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Kamil Stoch: The beneficiary of Granerud’s unexpectedly poor result at Bergisel was Stoch. The Pole won, took the lead and never gave it up. As the defending champion, who has already won the tour three times, the now 34-year-old is again one of the jumpers who cannot be written off. Although many things have not gone smoothly at Stoch this season, with his touring routine and fundamental class he can also annoy the top favorites.

Stefan Kraft: If you ask jumpers and coaches about favorites, the name Stefan Kraft comes up again and again. The Austrian won the tour in the 2014/15 season and has been one of the world’s best for years. “I really like the hills, the whole event,” said Kraft about the tour. “I think there are other top favorites. But I’m already one of the candidates.”

You can follow the Four Hills Tournament live here

So by this afternoon at the latest it will be exciting. The nice thing for fans from Germany: The public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, as well as the sports channel Eurosport broadcast all qualifying and final rounds live on television.

Here are the exact dates:

pgo / Thomas Eßer and Patrick Reichardt
DPA