Karl Geiger on top in Hinterzarten

Karl Geiger won the FIS Grand Prix 2019 in Hinterzarten on Saturday evening with jumps of 106 m and 99 m (253.6 points), close ahead of Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer (253.2 points) and his teammate Richard Freitag (248.7 points). With this win, Geiger now also took the overall lead in the Grand Prix.

It was the Saturday of Karl Geiger. Earlier today, he was a member of the winning German mixed team in Hinterzarten and would have also been the best individual athlete in this event. In the evening, the Oberstdorf-native took the win in the individual event in front of the home crowd. This was Geiger's third victory in the FIS Grand Prix, after the 26-year-old could win both competitions in Rasnov (ROU) last summer. "I enjoy jumping here in Hinterzarten and I had a lot of fun this weekend. Now I'm extremely happy that it went that well for me here", explained the winner.

The surprise of the day was provided by Gregor Schlierenzauer of Austria. The record World Cup winner had already proven his strong shape in the mixed team competition today and in the individual event this evening he missed the win by the tiny margin of only 0.4 points. For the 29-year-old, this was the first GP podium since his win in Hinzenbach 2015. Schlierenzauer's cooperation with former German head coach Werner Schuster seems to be bearing fruit already. It would be sensational if Gregor Schlierenzauer would be able to return to the world's elite. "It's only July, but for me it's great to show good jumps again. To fight for the top with Karl and Richard is a good thing, but there's still a lot of work left to do", he said after the competition.

The third place went to Richard Freitag, who stood on the podium for the first time since his win in Klingenthal 2014. "It was a nice weekend for me after Wisla didn't go that well. It was fun today and the conditions were good", said Freitag.

Besides Gregor Schlierenzauer, Slovenia's Peter Prevc also made a comeback among the very best in fourth. Prevc' teammate Ziga Jelar confirmed his quali-win from the day before with the fifth place. Youngster Constantin Schmid completed the strong result of the Germans in sixth. Viktor Polasek was the best Czech in seventh, Japan's Yuken Iwasa came in eighth. Best Norwegian was Marius Lindvik in ninth.

Karl Geiger now leads the overall ranking with 140 points, followed by Timi Zajc of Slovenia (100 points) and Gregor Schlierenzauer (86 points).

The Grand Prix continues two weeks from now in Courchevel (FRA), where men and women will be competing again.

Full results