Geiger flies to the podium at Holmenkollen
Karl Geiger beamed like the Norwegian sun, waved at the audience and was as happy as a snow king. The man from Oberstdorf enjoyed his lead for almost 15 minutes at the legendary Holmenkollen in Oslo, after a furious jump to 137.5 meters he could even briefly dream of victory. In the end it was enough for third place, for the German pilot it was only the third podium finish of the winter.
“Today went incredibly well. The second was really good, and then it goes really down. That was fun. I hope that things will continue like this,” said Geiger, who was only 13th after 119.0 meters in the first round. But then he started to catch up and also drew on the second in the World Cup Andrew Wellinger passed, who also fully convinced in the end as fifth.
“I’m incredibly happy with the competition,” said Wellinger, who was in poor health, on ZDF. “We are very happy to be on the podium here. That wasn’t foreseeable after training and qualifying,” said national coach Stefan Horngacher.
Victory at the first stop of the ten-day Raw Air Tour went to Slovenian Anze Lanisek Stephen Kraft from Austria. Lanisek even flew to 139.5 meters in the second round and even trumped Geiger. In the overall standings, Lanisek is now ahead of Kraft after three of 18 jumps. Geiger, who was only 13th in qualifying on Friday, follows in seventh place, Wellinger is tenth.
Althaus is fifth
In the women missed Catherine Althaus another victory in the first competition after her triple gold at the World Championships. The girl from Oberstdorf led after the first round, but fell back to fifth place in difficult wind conditions, which she also occupies in the overall ranking. The victory went to the Austrian Chiara Kreuzer (Austria).
The Raw Air Tour runs over ten days from Oslo via Lillehammer to Vikersund. All jumps from the qualifications and competitions are included in the overall ranking. In the men’s category, the winner receives 80,000 euros. In the women’s category, there is 60,000 euros for the overall winner, who will be determined after the competitions in Lillehammer.
