Tschofenig celebrates spectacular New Year’s Day Four Hills success

Jan 01, 2025·Ski Jumping

Tschofenig now leads the World Cup and 'Four Hills Tour' standings ©Reichert/NordicFocus

Daniel Tschofenig (AUT) continued Austria’s winning run in the FIS Ski Jumping 2024/25 Four Hills Tournament on a record-breaking day in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (GER).

The four-time World junior champion has demonstrated strong form throughout the season and claimed his third victory of the campaign, in highly impressive fashion, in front of 22,000 spectators.

Jumps of 141.5m and 143m saw Tschofenig achieve a winning total of 298.9 points, continuing his nation’s run of Four Hills success, after Stefan Kraft’s victory in Oberstdorf.

“It was a great competition, two amazing jumps and days like that are unforgettable,” said Tscofenig, who now leads the overall standings in the World Cup and race for the 2024/25 ‘Four Hills Tour’ crown.

“It’s a challenge (leading the standings), but I’ll make the best of it because right now it’s just happiness and no pressure.”

Gregor Deschwanden (SUI) was second with 290.3 points, while Michael Hayboeck’s new hill record of 145m in the first round helped him to a total of 289pts and third.

“Both are great achievements, as it’s not the easiest hill for me and I’ve never had a podium finish here until today,” said Hayboeck. “I’m very, very happy that I had two really cool jumps, the podium is a great achievement.

“I had a little bit of luck with the wind conditions, but it was my best jump in my career maybe. I was going to the limit, but I knew that from the take-off it was a great jump and I knew from the first second of the flight it would be a great one and it was a great feeling.”

The field will now reconvene for the second half of the 2024/25 Four Hills Tournament in Austria, with Innsbruck hosting the action from 3-4 January, before the concluding contest in Bischofshofen, 5-6 Jan.

How it played out: Four Hills – Garmisch-Partenkirchen

67 athletes had taken to the hill for qualifying on Tuesday, with the top-50 athletes reaching the first round, which as with all of the Four Hills contests would see the field divided into a series of duels between the highest and lowest ranked athletes.

The New Years’ Day competition would begin with those qualifying in the middle of the field, with 26^th Markus Mueller (AUT) vs 25^th Halvor Egner Granerud (NOR).

The Norwegian progressed with relative ease, but looked frustrated by his distance of 133m.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen HS142 is a flying hill, so it those at the top of the standings come the end of the first round were expecting to be reaching over 140m.

Naoki Nakamura (JPN) only 33^rd in qualifying but delivered a vastly improved performance in the main competition, with his score of 132.7 edged out rival Pawel Wasek (POL), who scored 131.1 in one of the closest contests seen in the opening round.

Over 22,000 fans cheered on the athletes in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ©Reichert/NordicFocus

Benjamin Oestvold (NOR) – 35^th in qualifying – celebrated wildly after recording 133m which saw him finish clear of Valentin Foubert (FRA), who claimed two Grand Prix podium finishes in August, before an encouraging showing on the World Cup circuit.

Kristoffer Eriksen Sundal (NOR) led for a long time, with Andreas Wellinger (GER), who was third on this hill at last year’s event, just behind.

Stefan Kraft (AUT), the 2023/24 Crystal Globe champion and winner of the first Four Hills event in Oberstdorf, had admitted he was a little “scared” of attacking too much in qualifying, where he ranked 11^th.

He was expected to fly clear of the Sundal and Wellinger, but the wind dropped just as he was beginning his run and 131.5m meant he was unlikely to mount a podium challenge.

Excitement and anticipation in the crowd continued to grow throughout the round, with Ren Nikaido (JPN) achieving 139.5m, before home fans celebrated an impressive 137m from Karl Geiger (GER), which temporarily put him top.

Lanisek was in seasons-best form in Germany ©Reichert/NordicFocus

The Slovenian men were without a World Cup podium finish so far this season, but Anze Lanisek (SLO) had given the nation some hope with a stunning 142m effort in the trial run, which was just 2m short of the hill record.

Conditions were trickier in the first round, but he still achieved a highly competitive 139.5m.

The hill record of 144m, set by Dawid Kubacki (POL) in 2021, was soon broken though as Michael Hayboeck (AUT) set a new mark with 145m, which scored 149.3 points.

The Austrian, who won his last individual World Cup title back in 2016, would not top the standings in the first round though, with Daniel Tschofenig (AUT) 141.5m jump achieving greater style marks, to attain a 2.3 point lead heading into the second round.

Gregor Deschwanden (SUI) was third, with top-qualifier Jan Hoerl (AUT), who was second in Oberstdorf, surprisingly down in ninth and Kraft down in 14^th.

World Cup leader Pius Paschke (GER) needed a ‘lucky loser’ place in order to reach the second round, as did Pawel Wasek (POL), Ziga Jelar (SLO), Valentin Foubert (FRA) and Marius Lindvik (NOR), who lined-up among the 30-strong group.

Paschke excited the home fans in round two ©Reichert/NordicFocus

Lindvik was significantly stronger second time around, recording a jump of 137m, following an earlier effort of 128.5m, which helped him to a score of 254 points.

Paschke made an even greater improvement, following up 129m, with 143.5m, much to the delight of the host-nation fans.

His total of 275.9, was soon beaten by Kraft (278.7), who also made important progress in terms of retaining a push for the Four Hills crown.

They would remain in the top-three for much of the remainder of the round, but the strongest athletes from earlier in the day would, as expected, change the shape of the leader board in the closing stages of the contest.

Hoerl, who entered the Garmisch-Partenkirchen World Cup second in the overall rankings, was the first to pass them, with a total of 283, but ultimately the trio, who have regularly challenged for honours this season, would not appear on the New Year’s Day podium.

Hoerl made impressive progress in round two ©Reichert/NordicFocus

Changeable conditions, which saw a tail wind switch to a head wind, caused a short delay in the competition, but once it restarted Lanisek landed another massive leap of 140.5.

He and then Deschwanden would take the lead, with the Swiss athlete guaranteeing himself a top-three finish in the process.

Hayboeck was not able to repeat his record-breaking leap from the first round, but 137.5m was enough for his first podium finish of the season.

Deshwanden’s total of 290.3 meant there was pressure on Tschofenig, but he delivered a stunning 143m leap to add 147.3pts to his total and secure a third win of 2024/25, following earlier successes in Wisla (POL) and Engelberg (SUI).