The Swiss ski jumpers disappoint at the start of the World Championships after a strong qualification from the small hill. Only Gregor Deschwanden reaches the final, but is not satisfied with 14th place.
02.03.2025, 19:48
02.03.2025, 20:04
SDA
Gregor Deschwanden did not beat about the bush. He was not at all satisfied with his performance in the continuous rain in Trondheim. And: "I have to take myself to task." On the one hand, he missed out on at least a place in the top ten with two poor landings, which were within reach with ninth place after the first run. Instead of attacking, however, he went backwards.
"Maybe I wanted a bit too much on the take-off," said Deschwanden, looking for an explanation. "It has often worked very well this season when I was able to activate myself properly. But today it was a bit too much." After the best season in the World Cup with four podium places, the 34-year-old from Lucerne had clearly hoped for more. "I can no longer be satisfied with places outside the top ten," he said before the start of the World Championships.
Gloomy Swiss picture
"I was a bit too aggressive, too impatient at the table", Deschwanden knows where the mistake was. He actually did well in flight. "But two or three meters were missing, then it just wasn't enough." Without Deschwanden's hoped-for exploit, the picture looks bleak from a Swiss perspective.
The result was a real debacle, which is all the more disappointing given that the previous evening's qualification had resulted in 4th (Killian Peier), 9th (Deschwanden) and 12th (Yanick Wasser) places. In relatively constant upwind conditions, however, the experienced Killian Peier in particular crashed to 41st place. The 2019 World Championship bronze medallist from the large hill thus finished one place ahead of Simon Ammann. World Championship newcomer Wasser fared only marginally better (36th).
Hoping for the large hill
From Tuesday, the Swiss will have the chance to make amends on the large hill. Three competitions, individual, team and mixed, are still on the program for the men. Then 19-year-old Juri Kesseli will also have another chance to force his way into one of the four starting places.
After all, the Swiss were not alone in their crash. World Cup leader Daniel Tschofenig (21st) and five-time season winner Pius Paschke (30th) were also hit hard. At least the Germans (Andreas Wellinger/2nd) and Austrians (Jan Hörl/3rd) had two who were able to step into the breach.
