Kamil Stoch and Piotr Zyla ahead in the qualification
Aug 31, 2018·Ski Jumping
The FIS Grand Prix 2018 started with the qualification in Wisla (POL) on Friday evening and Kamil Stoch and Piotr Zyla claimed a double victory for the Polish team in front of the home crowd at the Adam-Malysz-hill.
Kamil Stoch, last winter's overall World Cup winner, presented himself in an outstanding shape again after the four-months break. With the longest jump of the day of 137 and a total of 138.9 points, he won the qualification clearly ahead of his teammate Piotr Zyla, who scored 130.0 points with his jump of 131 m.
Karl Geiger of Germany started the weekend with a convincing performance as well and came in third with 126 m and 123.3 points. Behind the athlete from Oberstdorf, Japanese Yukiya Sato surprised in fourth.
Best Slovene today was the only 18-year-old Timi Zajc on a great fifth place. The third-best Pole was Aleksander Zniszczol in sixth. The local heroes of head coach Stefan Horngacher once again showed a strong team performance on so the fans can look forward to seeing eleven Polish ski jumpers in Sunday's individual competition.
Junior World Champion Marius Lindvik was the best of the Norwegian team in this qualification in eighth.
It was a disappointing day for the Austrians and their new head coach Andreas Felder. The best result was achieved by Michael Hayboeck in 24th. After almost a year-long break from competition due to health problems, Andreas Kofler could easily qualify in 31st, his teammates Manuel Fettner and Clemens Aigner, on the other hand, failed to qualify
Andreas Wellinger (46th) and the two Slovenes Domen Prevc (49th) and Anze Semenic (50th), barely made the cut and will have to significantly improve in order to start the season with good results this weekend.
Before the athletes will be fighting for the first individual victory of the FIS Grand Prix 2018 on Sunday, a team competition will be held in Wisla on Saturday (5:30 pm CET).
)
