COC: Kraft and Huber take double victory for the hosts

Stefan Kraft and Daniel Huber secured a double victory for the Austrian hosts in the first competition of this weekend's Continental Cup in Stams.

The 2016/17 overall World Cup champion won on Saturday with jumps of 115 m and 115.5 m and 263.0 points. This was the seventh win in the COC for the 24-year-old high flyer of last winter, the first in over four years. "Winning a competition is always great. Especially in summer, during the preparation for the winter, it's good for the self-confidence. I'm in a good shape, but I still have some work to do. I went to school in Stams for five years, so it's great to win here now ahead of one of my best friends."

With a jump of 115 m, Daniel Huber had a close lead over Stefan Kraft after the first round, his 112.5 m in the final then earned him a total of 255.0 points and the second place. "I knew that I'm in a good shape and could finish in the Top 10 or Top 6. I was a little bit surprised that I was in the lead after the first round. It was a great competition for me. I still feel my injury a bit in the inrun, but it's no problem", said Daniel Huber.

Tilen Bartol of Slovenia, with 112.5 m fifth after the first half of the competition, had an outstanding jump of 119.5 m in the final round and finished third overall with 253.4 points. "My first jump was pretty solid, my second jump was really good with a new hill record and so I'm very happy. I don't know if it would have been possible to do a telemark, but I thought it's too risky. This summer was pretty good for me, but there's still room for improvement", Tilen Bartol said after the competition.

The fourth place went to Vincent Descombes Sevoie of France, followed by young Slovene Bor Pavlovcic (5th) and the third best Austrian of the day, Manuel Fettner (6th).

Best German athlete was the only 17-year-old Constantin Schmid in seventh. With the place 9, 11 and 13,  Pius Paschke, Richard Freitag and Moritz Baer provided a decent result for the German Ski Association.

The very good performance of the Slovenes with three jumpers among the best 10 was completed by Domen Prevc in eighth. Klemens  Muranka was tenth and represented Poland in the Top 10.

The two Austrian stars Gregor Schlierenzauer and Michael Hayboeck didn't come in among the best today and finished only 21st (Schlierenzauer) and 28th (Hayboeck).

In this event with a top-class field of competitors, well-known athletes like Jan Ziobro, Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes and Tom Hilde failed to make the cut for the final round.

Klemens Muranka now leads the overall ranking of the COC with 446 points, ahead of Miran Zupancic of Slovenia (322 points) and his Polish teammate Aleksander Zniszczol (172 points).