Kamil Stoch unbeatable in front of the home crowd

About a week after his triumph at 4-Hills-Tournament, Kamil Stoch of Poland won the first of two Ski Jumping World Cups in Wisla (POL). Stoch took the win with jumps of 133 m and 124 m (268.0 points), clearly ahead of Austria's Stefan Kraft (133 m and 117 m; 251.7 points) and Andreas Wellinger of Germany (127.5 m and 120.5 m; 249.1 points). With this win Stoch also took the lead in the overall World Cup.

Stoch takes yellow bib

"I didn't know that I had such a big lead over Stefan Kraft. I have chronic knee problems, sometimes it's better and sometimes I feel the pain, like yesterday. Today it was okay and so I could show two good jumps. It's nice to wear the yellow bib. This is the result of my hard work and it's also a challenge to defend it and continue to jump well", the winner said after the competition.

Second-placed Austrian Stefan Kraft was within striking distance to Stoch after the first round, but with only 117 m in the final he had to be satisfied with finishing second. "I'm very satisfied with the result, it was a great competition. My first jump was very good, the second one was a bit late at the take-off. Today I had no chance to beat Kamil, he is in a great shape. After the 4-Hills-Tournament I wanted to be in the Top 10 again, now I'm on the podium. I feel strong again and want to fight for the podium in every competition", Kraft was self-confident after the competition.

Andreas Wellinger achieved his by far best result this season with the third place. "It was a long way for me. I took it step by step over the past four or five weeks. Today I felt good and made my best jumps, especially in the final round. It's great to be on the podium. I really like Poland, especially this hill here in Wisla. The fans are great and always help us to jump far", said Wellinger.

Norway's Daniel Andre Tande came in fourth, only 0.5 points ahead of Slovenia's Domen Prevc and Austrian Manuel Fettner. Michael Hayboeck, third after the first round, finished eighth overall.

The ski of Slovene Cene Prevc provided a short moment of shock. Prevc lost a ski when he got ready for his jump and it went all the way down the hill. FIS Race Director Walter Hofer himself took the ski up to the start again and Cene Prevc was allowed to jump later then planned. The Slovene came in 26th.

Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer closely missed the final in 31st. "My jump in this round was just not that good at the take-off. The inrun speed is really low, the field is extremely tight, you just can't make any mistakes", Schlierenzauer explained the 31st place in his comeback event. Besides Schlierenzauer, Norwegian Johann Andre Forfang also failed to make the cut for the final of the best 30.

Kamil Stoch (POL / 733 points) now leads the overall World Cup ahead of Domen Prevc (SLO / 691 points) and Norway's Daniel Andre Tande (687 points).

The team of Poland leads in the Nations Cup (2228 points), followed by Austria (2098 points) and Germany (1919 points).