Maciej Kot wins this summer's first qualification
Aug 31, 2018·Ski Jumping
The local heroes Maciej Kot and Dawid Kubacki provided a Polish double victory in this summer's first qualification in Wisla (POL). Jumps of 128 m (Kot) and 125 m (Kubacki) were enough for the two Poles to came in ahead of Norway's Daniel Andre Tande (127 m) and Czech Roman Koudelka (127.5 m).
This summer's FIS Grand Prix in Wisla started a few hours later than originally planned and with only one training round for the world's best ski jumpers. Due to the difficult wind conditions, the start of the official training had to be postponed from 4 pm to 7 pm and there was no second training round. In the evening the many spectators at the hill in Wisla then saw the first qualification of this Grand Prix season and it was held under good conditions and the performances were on a high level.
Gangnes with strong comeback
"My focus is on the winter again, but if it goes well and I'm successful I'm obviously happy about it", today's winner Maciej Kot said after his success. Kot won the summer competition in Wisla last year and later also took the overall title of the FIS Grand Prix 2016.
Besides the two Poles, Norwegian Kenneth Gangnes, who made his comeback after a long break due to a serious knee injury, could also show a strong performance. "I'm not as consistent as I want to be yet, but basically I'm very satisfied with my performance here. It's going well", Gangnes said after the successful qualification and his jump of 125.5 m. The performance of Swiss Simon Ammann was remarkable as well. The four-time Olympic champion had a strong jump of 128.5 m and finished sixth.
Local hero Klemens Muranka, who dominated the COC season opener last weekend with two wins in Kranj (SLO), also presented himself in a strong shape. He came in 12th in the qualification.
Germans easily qualified
Best German athlete was Andreas Wank in ninth, Stephan Leyhe tied for tenth with Austria's Andreas Kofler. Karl Geiger in 17th and Andreas Wellinger and Richard Freitag in 22nd and 23rd completed the result of the German team.
The US team didn't do well today. Kevin Bickner is the only American athlete who could qualify for Saturday's competition. William Rhoads, Casey Larson and Michael Glasder failed to make the cut.
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