COC-M: Lukas Hlava takes the home win

After the first two legs in Szczyrk (POL) and Wisla (POL), the Beskidy-Tour as part of the Ski Jumping Continental Cup ended after three days with a competition in Frenstat (CZE). And there the hosts had a good reason to celebrate on Sunday afternoon.

Veteran Lukas Hlava, who was already among the best on Friday and Saturday with a third and ninth place, jumped on 99 m and 103.5 m for 254.2 points and took his first win in the COC since almost exactly two years. Back then, the 33-year-old local hero also stood on top of the podium in Frenstat. "This victory means a lot to me. It was a difficult day because we came here from Wisla this morning. I'm glad that I could achieve such a good result. After the first round, I believed that I could win. I like this hill and I'm always looking forward to jumping here", said the happy winner.

The second and third place behind the Czech went to Austria. Florian Altenburger, with 103 m sixth after the first round, showed the longest jump in the final round with 104.5 m  and moved up to second overall with 251.0 points. Of course, he was satisfied with this result: "It was a good day for me. Honestly, I don't know what happened overnight that I could improve my performances from Szczyrk and Wisla significantly. I'm happy that I had two good jumps today and that I'm on the podium."

The winner of the first two competitions of the weekend, Philipp Aschenwald, came in third this time with his jumps of 98.5 m and 103 m (248.5 points). "I really enjoyed this tour a lot. On the first two days I had some really strong jumps, today it was not so good", said Philipp Aschenwald.

Surprisingly, the longest jump of the day was shown by Eetu Nousiainen with 107 m in the first round. The Finn was in the lead ahead of Lukas Hvala after the first half of the competition, which was held under partly difficult wind conditions. With 99.5 m in the final round and 246.9 points he ended up fourth and closely missed the podium, but still achieved the best result of his career so far.

Behind the 21-year-old from Kuopio, Zak Mogel of Slovenia and Fabian Seidl of Germany tied for fifth. Fabian Seidl, sixth yesterday in Wisla, has never done that well in a COC event. The same also applies for his teammate Julian Hahn, who came in eighth, behind Czech Cestmir Kozisek.

Rok Justin of Slovenia was not able to defend the third place at half-time with his second jump of 97 m and finished ninth, followed by Jonathan Learoyd of France.

With a total of 298 points, Philipp Aschenwald still holds a clear lead in the overall ranking of the Continental Cup. Kilian Peier of Switzerland (200 points) and Lukas Hlava (189 points) are now second and third.

Aschenwald won the overall title of the Beskidy-Tour ahead of Lukas Hlava and Zak Mogel.

The next two competitions will be held in Stams (AUT) on September 8th and 9th.