Markus Eisenbichler narrowly missed both the hill record and the first place at the New Year’s show in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. 20 years after Sven Hannawald’s last victory on January 1st, because of 0.2 points – that is the equivalent of a little more than eleven centimeters – there was nothing like a German ski jumping victory on New Year’s. The 25-year-old Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi secured the next victory after attempts at 143 and 135.5 meters after first place in Oberstdorf and was also ahead of the tour’s overall ranking on Saturday and is 13.2 points ahead of second-placed Norwegian Marius Lindvik.
A piece of ski jumping history is possible for Kobayashi on the tour: he could be the first athlete to win all four competitions of a tour twice. He had already achieved this in 2018/19. “Kobayashi is in excellent shape. He’s not making any mistakes at the moment,” praised Norway’s trainer Alexander Stöckl on ZDF.
The result of the New Year’s jumping
While Markus Eisenbichler got off to a top start in 2022 with second place, Karl Geiger experienced a disappointment at the 100th anniversary of the New Year’s event. After jumps to 130 and 127.5 meters, the 28-year-old from Oberstdorf took seventh place in spring-like weather and up to ten degrees and thus lost the yellow jersey for the first time this winter. Disappointed, he waved it away in the run. “To be honest, I’m pissed off. I haven’t had it so well twice, but I could have done better,” said Geiger on ZDF. For him it “sucks”.
“If I’ve seen it correctly: Unfortunately, the conditions are bad again. This is the tour,” commented Severin Freund on the colleague’s bad luck. “It was a very difficult situation,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher, describing the first attempt with a brief strong tailwind.
At the remaining two stations in Austria, Geiger and Eisenbichler should fight for daily victories again. With the overall victory it will be very difficult if Kobayashi, who missed a few competitions due to a corona break, continues to show such consistent performances. Third of the day was the Slovenian Lovro Kos (135.5 and 138 meters). Eisenbichler climbed from seventh to fourth place (-21.1 points) in the tour ranking, while Geiger is almost hopelessly behind in sixth place (-32.3).
Good team result for the German team
Horngacher was happy about Eisenbichler’s strong return. “Markus is slowly picking up speed. He really does great jumps,” praised the Tyrolean. Especially the second attempt at 143.5 meters was great – the hill record is 144 meters. The landing, which was unclean because of the distance, cost the 30-year-old victory in the end. “I didn’t dare to telemark, I couldn’t see a line down there,” said Eisenbichler on ZDF: “But I’m satisfied, totally awesome.”
Behind the two top athletes Geiger and Eisenbichler, the German team also achieved a decent team result for the anniversary. A total of six athletes made it into the second round, Stephan Leyhe presented himself particularly well, who was the third-best German in tenth as at the start. Olympic champion Andreas Wellinger scored the first points on this tour, he made it to 22nd place.
It continues on Tuesday in Innsbruck
Already halfway through the traditional event, favorites for the golden eagle and 100,000 Swiss francs (approx. 97,000 euros) in prize money said goodbye. Defending champion Kamil Stoch from Poland missed the second round in Oberstdorf and this time too, Austria’s co-favorite Stefan Kraft even missed the qualification on New Year’s Eve. The Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud, who was second in Oberstdorf, also lost a lot on New Year’s. Despite a strong second attempt, he did not get past eighth place.
After the second and last day of rest on Sunday, Geiger, Eisenbichler and Co. head to Austria. In the recent past, German touring dreams have often come to an end at the notorious Bergisel in Innsbruck. Head coach Horngacher put a special focus on the difficult hill in Tyrol last summer. On Tuesday (2 p.m. / ZDF and Eurosport) the groundbreaking third competition will take place, the day before there will be qualification in the 2019 World Cup stadium.