The Bayer knocks out another one at its last World Cup station. In the qualification there are only two other Germans in front of him.
Markus Eisenbichler stretched the right index finger to the sky, then he kissed the camera in the run and screamed his irrepressible joy through the Planica ski flight arena: With one set to 238.5 m, the outgoing ex-world champion caused a real bang. Of all things, at his last World Cup station, of all people on his favorite hill, Eisenbichler jumped daily sidewalks on Thursday in the qualification.
Before the 33-year-old (226 points), who ended his ski jumping career after the weekend, only his teammates Andreas Wellinger (231.1) and Pius Paschke (228.9) ended up in the trial run for the competition on Friday (3:00 p.m./ARD and Eurosport). Karl Geiger also in 19th place (202.9) and Felix Hoffmann as 24 (196.7) qualified.
The gigantic Letalnica hill has a very special meaning for Eisenbichler. Here, in Slovenian ski flight mecca Planica, Bayer finally flew as far as no other German so far. “The German record will never go out of my head,” says Eisenbichler about the 248 meters that he stood in 2017 and 2019.
Eisenbichler celebrated his debut in the World Cup in the 2011/12 season and was a guarantee of success for the German team for a long time. Among other things, he won gold in the individual competition at the 2019 World Cup in Seefeld, plus five World Cup gold medals in the team, in Beijing he won 2022 Olympic bronze with the team. However, Eisenbichler has had to struggle in recent years, among other things, he recently missed the World Cup in Trondheim due to performance.
In Planica, two more competitions are scheduled for Friday after flying: team flying on Saturday and the end of the season on Sunday. After that, Eisenbichler’s career is over.