At the halfway point of the team competition in Lahti, the German ski jumpers are on course for victory. Then one of them fails and Slovenia passes. In the end, the team of the German Ski Association cheers at the top of the podium. One thing in particular is relieved.
Lahti (dpa) - The German ski jumpers cheered in their arms, national coach Stefan Horngacher had to blow hard after the heartbeat finale: Constantin Schmid, Pius Paschke, Stephan Leyhe and Karl Geiger won the thrilling team competition in Lahti, Finland.
Led by the overall World Cup second violinist, who jumped 128 meters and 121 meters in difficult conditions, the German quartet won ahead of Slovenia and Austria on Saturday. The DSV eagles celebrated their second victory in the fourth team world cup of the season and once again demonstrated their strong form of the past few weeks.
"This is how we imagined the end: at the top," said Leyhe and added with a laugh: "In front of the Austrians!" Thanks to the success, the German points placed second in the Nations Cup caught up with the leading team from the neighboring country. The gap is now only 179 points.
"We are really happy that we won the thing today," said Horngacher on ARD and spoke of a "tremor". Germany was already in the lead after the first round, but start jumper Schmid failed and let Slovenia pass at the beginning of the second half of the competition. However, his team made the turn again.
"Fortunately, I have great teammates who can make their boots and compensate for the whole thing," said the visibly relieved 20-year-old Schmid. He had followed his first jump at 127.5 meters only 112 meters.
Paschke (121 and 122 meters), who replaced the weakly shaped Markus Eisenbichler, and Leyhe, who jumped 127 and 125 meters, prepared the way for the grand finale: Slovenia showed just 40 centimeters before the last jumper of each team Germany.
"I went full attack and thought: All or nothing," Geiger described the approach to his last jump. The plan worked: In the end, Germany won with a lead of 1.27 meters. "This is a great success for the team," said Horngacher, who was happy about Geiger's second place in the singles the day before.
The third competition for the jumpers will take place on Sunday within three days - from 3.30 p.m. (ARD and Eurosport) there will be a single on the program again.
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