Karl Geiger is Ski Flying World Champion
Dec 12, 2020·Ski Jumping
It was an amazing and dramatic second day at the Ski Flying World Championships in Planica. In a true nail-biter, Karl Geiger came in ahead of the strong Norwegian Halvor Egner Granerud and Markus Eisenbichler. After a total of four flights and more than 900 m, 0.5 points or about 40 cm decided between silver and gold - crazy.
"It's incredible that I can stand on top of the podium in an individual competition at such a main event, that's new for me. It's so emotional, I'm overwhelmed. Nobody would have expected that from me in Ski Flying, I was always considered stronger on smaller hills", explained Geiger, who is the first German Ski Flying World Champion after Severin Freund won in Harrachov six years ago. It's the seventh title for a German ski jumper.
"I'm also extremely happy for Markus. Actually, I expected that he would be stronger than me here because he's such a good ski flyer and in incredible shape. It's fantastic that we can be on the podium together", said an obviously overwhelmed Ski Flying World Champion about the third place of his teammate Markus Eisenbichler.
Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud also did a great job today and finished second. In his first-ever Ski Flying World Championships, Granerud posted four great jumps and put a lot of pressure on Karl Geiger before his fourth and final jump. Geiger had to give his all in order to beat Granerud by just a few centimeters. It was a great fight and both would have deserved to win today.
In the end, Granerud missed the title by only 0.5 points. The 24-year-old rising star of this winter came in second. Not many expected the Norwegian to do that well on the Letalnica, a hill that he didn't really like before - Great job.
"I thought I had a chance to win today because in the fourth round I saw how far beyond the green line I landed and I knew how good the jumpers before me are. So I was hoping for the gold with that jump but unfortunately, it was just not good enough", said Granerud, who was disappointed right after the competition.
Markus Eisenbichler, who was considered the top favorite before the event, was not disappointed at all with his third place today. "I'm extremely happy, it was a tough fight on these two days between five athletes. Congratulations to Karl, I'm so happy for him. Halvor was also amazing here. It's incredible that I could win a medal, it's my sixth at World Championships. Of course, I would have loved to win the title, but the competition is strong. Now I hope that we can be on the podium again in the team competition tomorrow", said Eisenbichler.
The places four to six went to Michael Hayboeck (AUT), Robert Johansson (NOR) and Yukiya Sato (JPN). Piotr Zyla and Kamil Stoch achieved Top 10 results for Poland in seventh and eighth. Evgeniy Klimov (RUS) and Andrzej Stekala (POL) completed the Top 10 in an outstanding Ski Flying competition.
The World Championships conclude with the team event on Sunday. The competition starts at 4 pm CET.
