Four Hills Tournament: Stefan Kraft wins in Oberstdorf, Paschke fourth

Pius Paschke kept the German ski jumpers’ hope of their first Four Hills Tournament victory since Sven Hannawald’s triumph 23 years ago. With his fourth place at the atmospheric start of the ski jump spectacle in Oberstdorf, the 34-year-old is still fully in the race for the Golden Eagle. Austria’s dominance dampened the mood somewhat. Paschke finished behind the Austrian winner Stefan Kraft and his compatriots Jan Hörl and Daniel Tschofenig. He is 13.8 points behind first place.

Paschke jumped 138 and 133.5 meters in front of 25,500 spectators in the sold-out arena. “It was cool. It was fun,” said the best German after his first jump on ZDF. “I was able to use the emotions in the stadium.” Karl Geiger (eighth place) only managed this on his second jump at 137 meters, Andreas Wellinger (20th place) didn’t do it at all. The two top performers are already out of the fight for overall victory. All the pressure is now on Paschke.

Only the ski jumping oldie met national coach Stefan Horngacher’s requirement: “You don’t have to win Oberstdorf, but you have to stick with it. You shouldn’t open up too much of a gap here – and that’s our goal,” the 55-year-old said before the competition .

It wasn’t necessarily expected that this would succeed. Paschke competed in the leader’s yellow jersey in the overall World Cup. However, his form curve had recently shown a clear bend. At the tour dress rehearsal in Switzerland shortly before Christmas he only came in tenth and 18th. The training jumps in Oberstdorf were also not those of a tour favorite. Austria also dominated the qualification with five jumpers at the top.

Paschke is the big surprise of the winter so far. He won five of the ten individual World Cups before the tour. Just over a year ago, the late starter in the German team celebrated his first ever World Cup victory.

After the successes of the past few weeks, there was a hype surrounding the introverted police chief that no one had expected. In honor of Paschke, the people in his home town of Kiefersfelden organized a public viewing of the start of the tour. Despite the dampening of the mood in Engelberg when Paschke showed weaknesses for the first time this season, there was great anticipation.

In Oberstdorf, around 250 kilometers away, thousands of fans celebrated a big ski jumping party hours before the competition. People danced and swayed to carnival and Ballermann hits in the streets, alleys and taverns in the glorious sunshine. The police also contributed to the exuberant atmosphere with loudspeakers on their bus in front of the train station. “Hey, we want to see the polar bears,” boomed from the speakers.

The Schattenbergschanze, which Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) also visited at the start, had been something of a favorite ski jump for German jumpers in recent years. Of the five German tour one-day victories since Hannawald’s quadruple success 23 years ago, four were in the Allgäu.

This time too, the start kept hope alive. The next chance to nourish them even further is at the New Year’s jump in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.