National coach Stefan Horngacher will be without Markus Eisenbichler and Stephan Leyhe at the first ski jumping World Cup after the Four Hills Tournament. The recently weakening duo is not part of the seven-man German squad for the weekend’s competitions in Zakopane, Poland. The German Ski Association (DSV) received the additional starting place because of the strong performances of its jumpers in the Continental Cup.
In addition to Andreas Wellinger, Karl Geiger, Pius Paschke, Philipp Raimund, Felix Hoffmann and Adrian Tittel, who competed in the last competition of the tour in Bischofshofen, Constantin Schmid was appointed to the World Cup team. Eisenbichler was recently only part of the squad for the New Year’s competition as part of the national group, while Leyhe lost his starting place halfway through the tour. The two 33-year-olds will compete in the Continental Cup jumping in Bischofshofen this weekend.
After the overall disappointing tour for the DSV, the ski jumping elite had their only free weekend of the World Cup winter: “The last week was very relaxed, I focused on strength training and deliberately didn’t jump,” said Paschke.
On the Wielka-Krokiew ski jump, the jumpers return to the big stage in a team competition (Saturday/4.15 p.m.) and an individual competition (Sunday/4 p.m.). “We are looking forward to Zakopane, the many spectators and hopefully good conditions. “In addition, the classic team jumping competition is on the program, which is traditional for us and is a lot of fun for the participants,” said Horngacher.
#Ski #jumping #National #coach #Eisenbichler #Leyhe #Zakopane
