As of: January 1, 2025 4:17 p.m
Pius Paschke suffered a setback in the fight for overall victory at the Four Hills Tournament. At the New Year’s jump in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Wednesday (January 1, 2025), he moved into the top 10 thanks to a strong second jump, but lost further meters to the overall leaders. The winner came again from Austria.
Paschke came ninth in Daniel Tschofenig’s daily success after jumps of 129 and 134.5 meters, but lost a further 23 points to the new leader in the overall ranking. Gregor Deschwanden from Switzerland came second behind Tschofenig. Third place went to Tschofenig’s compatriot Michael Hayböck, who set a new hill record with 145 meters in the first round.
“Unfortunately I made small mistakes at the top in the first jump and that led to many subsequent mistakes. In the second jump it was better, but not perfect yet.”said Paschke at the sports show microphone.
The best of the nine jumpers from the German Ski Association (DSV) was Karl Geiger in sixth place. Andreas Wellinger also made it into the top ten, just behind Paschke. Philipp Raimund and Felix Hoffmann also made it to the final and took positions 19 and 25 in the final rankings.
Horngacher sees Team result positive
“It’s really fun, I know what I have to do”explained Geiger afterwards. He noticed that he had moved a little closer to the top again. “That gives me courage and motivates me.”
National coach Stefan Horngacher then spoke of one “Good team result with three men in the top ten. That’s always very good.” Nevertheless, he would have liked a top place: “There were just a few others better. You have to accept that. But it’s very, very close and difficult to be at the front at the moment.”
Paschke with bad luck and luck in the wind
In changing conditions, Paschke missed direct qualification for the final after 129 meters in his knockout duel with the American Tate Frantz, but was one of the five best losers and thus slipped into the second round. But he was already 20 points behind the leaders. With 143.5 meters, Paschke showed his potential in the second round in good conditions, limited the damage and moved up a few places in the classification.
Karl Geiger initially took the lead with 137 meters and caused thunderous cheers among the predominantly German fans at the large Olympic ski jump. This made him the best German jumper in fifth place after the first round. However, his 138.5 meters in the final was not enough to secure the podium.
Andreas Wellinger’s jump didn’t seem that strong at first glance (126.5 m), but he had the worst wind conditions and was in a decent eleventh place at the halfway point. At 134 meters he moved up one position.
Raimund and Hoffmann with rising form
Philipp Raimund continued his upward trend of the past few days and was able to prevail against the American Kevin Bickner with 129.5 meters. After 131 meters in the second jump, he was in 19th position.
In his knockout duel, Felix Hoffmann had to intervene in his flight shortly after the jump and landed at 124 meters. His direct competitor Alexander Zniszczol jumped one and a half meters further, but was hit by the wind and lost the duel. In the final, Hoffmann moved up to 25th place after a strong 131.5 meters.
Eisenbichler and Co. with the Lucky Losers
Markus Eisenbichler, who was dropped from the World Cup team shortly before the tour and managed to qualify for the knockout duels through the national group, was the first DSV jumper in demand and reached 129 meters. He lost to the Estonian Artti Aigro and had to hope for one of the five places on the lucky loser list.
Stephan Leyhe’s 125 meters were also not enough to make it directly into the final; like Eisenbichler, he first had to wait to see whether he could get through the replacement list. Six duels later, Willingen was initially out of the lucky losers, but moved back after Bickner was disqualified and was allowed to hope again.
DSV trio hopes in vain
But then Constantin Schmid came. The Oberaudorfer lost the direct duel with Oberstdorf winner Stefan Kraft with 118.5 meters, but moved ahead of Leyhe in the losers’ list. But he wasn’t represented there for a long time, after the duel Paschke against Frantz he was out too.
And Eisenbichler ultimately didn’t make it either. A duel involving a teammate also proved fatal for him. Because Geiger’s opponent Ziga Jelar managed 133 meters, the former world champion was out of the lucky losers.
It was much clearer with Luca Roth, who had no chance against the Austrian Daniel Tschofenig with 122 meters and was eliminated straight away.
