Berlin – Karl Geiger looked with happy eyes at the crystal angel in his hand, but the real trophy of desire has been a mighty golden eagle since the fourth Advent at the latest. “I really enjoyed the minutes at the award ceremony, that was really awesome,” said Germany’s number one ski jumper in Engelberg after his impressive triumph at the dress rehearsal for the Four Hills Tournament.
Geiger will travel to this traditional and prestigious event in the yellow jersey of the World Cup leader. And on December 29th, in his home town of Oberstdorf, he took on the battle for the eagle cup with a lot of self-confidence. It was “awesome”, said Geiger after his eleventh World Cup victory on Saturday – the first he celebrated in 2018 on the difficult Gross-Titlis-Schanze in the idyllic Swiss mountain resort. The fact that the 28-year-old was able to leave for the short Christmas break with Mrs. Franziska and daughter Luisa on Advent Sunday with a wonderful feeling gives him a real boost.
Karl Geiger kontert Ryoyu Kobayashi
Geiger is one of the strongest mentally, as demonstrated by his victory on Saturday. As the penultimate jumper he had to run in the second run, right in front of him the Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi, who is currently also acting in cream form, had built up pressure with the daily best distance of 140.5 m. But Geiger countered unimpressed with 140.0 m. The following Slovenian Timi Zajc failed – Geiger’s second win of the season four weeks after the opening success in Nizhny Tagil was perfect. On Sunday he flew to second place behind Kobayashi in the second competition in Engelberg.
“Karl has proven how strong he can be in competition,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher about his top man, who was last beaten below value in Klingenthal and struggled. “He was looking for his ideal jump and found it today,” said Horngacher. There are worse lost and found items just before the tour.
Victory in Engelberg as a psychological matter
The fact that he is allowed to present himself there as the World Cup leader is simply “mega cool. It’s a privilege, that’s what we always work towards, “said Geiger:” And that’s why I’m really looking forward to wearing the yellow jersey back home. ” being.
Only two German jumpers started the tour in yellow in the past quarter of a century: In 1999, Martin Schmitt also won in Oberstdorf, but only finished third overall – he never won the tour. And in 2017 Richard Freitag won like Geiger in Engelberg, but had a hard fall on the tour in Innsbruck and had to give up. From a German perspective, the coveted jersey has so far been anything but a textile lucky charm.
Geiger did not want to deal with such stories. At first only the Engelberg crystal angel in his hand counted for him, he wanted to focus on the golden eagle later and not lose many words about the tour. The Engelberg dress rehearsal character is at best a psychological matter. “What is happening here,” he said, “is exactly irrelevant for the tour.”