As of: January 4, 2025 3:55 p.m
Pius Paschke came eighth in the third competition of the Four Hills Tournament in Innsbruck. That was the best of the DSV team – but he has to finally tick off the overall tour ranking. The day's victory went to three Austrians Stefan Kraft in an exciting finale. The afternoon was very bitter for Karl Geiger, who missed the final of the top 30.
After his jumps of 128.5 and 123.5 meters, the overall World Cup runner-up Paschke was 27.5 points behind the day's winner. Kraft prevailed in a thrilling three-way battle against his colleagues Jan Hörl and Daniel Tschofenig.
With distances of 131.5 and 132 meters, Kraft relegated his compatriots Hörl (134 and 132 meters) and Tschofenig (132.5 and 127.5 meters) to the top spots. After the first round, the three Austrians were only separated by a tiny 0.9 points. In the final, Kraft won by 1.4 points over Hörl, who had led at halftime. Overall tour leader Tschofenig was third, 10.0 points behind. However, he defended the blue tour jersey and is heading to the tour finale in Bischofshofen as the overall leader, where the decision will be made on Sunday (January 5th, 2025) and Monday (January 6th, 2025).
Deschwanden cannot reduce the deficit
Innsbruck has already made a preliminary decision: the three Austrians will decide on the tour victory among themselves. The Swiss Gregor Deschwanden, fourth overall, lost further points to the trio from the neighboring country with distances of 126 and 129 meters and fourth on the day.
Paschke: “Not quite the ease”
For Paschke, the gap in the overall ranking also increased. But the man from Kiefersfelden didn't want to mourn missed opportunities: “No”he answered when asked whether the deficit hurts. “Everyone is their own luck. And the others just jump extremely well. I'm missing a little bit, I don't quite have the ease that I had in the winter.”said Paschke, who already lost the yellow jersey of the World Cup leader in the New Year's competition. “Ultimately, I'm not quite able to let go properly and release the jump properly. And then I'm missing a few meters.”Paschke analyzed his jumps.
Horngacher: “Looked tense”
National coach Stefan Horngacher said about his team's overall mixed performance: “It still looked a bit tense. It wasn't quite as relaxed. There's enormous pressure on it, the athletes want to do the best. Sometimes it backfires. Maybe that was the case today.”
Three Germans in the top 15
From a German perspective, only Paschke, Andreas Wellinger and Philipp Raimund reached the final of the best 30. The second best German behind Paschke was Wellinger in 13th place. After 127 meters and 14th place in the first round, he improved one place in the final with 124.5 meters.
Raimund jumps to his best result of the season
Raimund was unable to build on his good jumps in qualification and training, in which he came seventh and fourth. The 24-year-old flew to 124 meters in the first round and came in 23rd. In the final, he improved by eight places with a jump to 128.5 meters and finished the competition in 15th place, his best result of the season.
“After fourth place in the test round, I hoped for more. Maybe I wanted too much, so I didn't have the fine blade”said Raimung angrily in the Sportschau interview after the competition. The conclusion is still positive: “Nevertheless, I'm very satisfied. Innsbruck was very good and an improvement over the last few weeks.”
Geiger misses the final – “It hurts a lot”
Three Germans didn't make it to the final of the top 30. Geiger, eighth overall on the tour, also failed. In the direct duel, the Oberstdorfer with 124 meters was unable to prevail against the American Kevin Bickner (125.5 meters). Geiger also missed out on advancing directly because he lost a few points due to a wobble immediately after landing.
“It's a bit slippery there and it cut my skis. Luckily I didn't fall. But that hurts a lot when it comes to the posture scores.”said Geiger at the Sportschau microphone. On the fifth of the Lucky-Loser-rating, Marius Lindvik from Norway, Geiger was 3.8 points short in the end. The 21-time World Cup winner was eliminated in 34th place.
Hoffmann and Tittel 44th and 45th out
Felix Hoffmann and Adrian Tittel also didn't get a second jump in Innsbruck. Hoffmann failed with 115.5 meters against the Pole Jakub Wolny (120.5 meters), Tittel had to admit defeat with 114 meters against the Czech Roman Koudelka (117.5 meters). In the end, Hoffmann and Tittel were ranked 44th and 45th in the daily ranking.
