Outstanding performance by Kamil Stoch

After his home win in Wisla last week, overall World Cup winner Kamil Stoch also took the win in the second individual competition of the FIS Grand Prix 2018 in Hinterzarten (GER) in an impressive manner.

In front of 5000 fans at the "Adlerschanze", the 31-year-old Pole was clearly the best in both rounds with his jumps of 110 m and 106.5 m and with 271.1 points he also stood on top of the podium in the third competition of the summer (2 x individual, 1 x team). "Although the spring was very stressful for us, I was able to train well. I'm very satisfied with my jumps on this hill. We will not compete in every Grand Prix event, because we will also take a break at some point, and I'm really looking forward to it. So far I haven't been on vacation this year", Kamil Stoch said after his perfect start of the season.

The highlight of the day for the hosts was provided by Karl Geiger. The athlete from Oberstdorf jumped on 104 m and 99 m on the HS 108 hill and second the second place with his total of 256.3 points. This is a career-best in the Grand Prix for him. "I already did very well in Wisla and I'm happy that I could also present myself in a good shape here in Hinterzarten. We will skip the next event in Einsiedeln, hopefully I can then be among the best again in Courchevel", said Karl Geiger.

Kilian Peier of Switzerland, who surprised in fifth in the season opener in Wisla, confirmed this performance also in Hinterzarten. With 104 m and 100.5 m, he came in only 0.5 points behind Karl Geiger and achieved his first ever Top 3 result in a Grand Prix event. The 23-year-old seems to establish himself among the world's best early this summer and that with his home competition in Einsiedeln coming up next week. "It's a great feeling to achieve the first podium on a World Cup level. In retrospect, it might have been good for me that I couldn't qualify for the Olympic Games because I started to analyze my performances. I took the time to find out what works and what doesn't and asked myself what I could change. Patience was the solution", explained Kilian Peier.

Piotr Zyla finished fourth and together with Stoch, Stefan Hula (6th), Jakub Wolny (8th) and Dawid Kubacki (10th) he proved once again that the Poles are the by far best team at the moment.

The third-placed jumper in Friday's qualification, Evgeniy Klimov of Russia, confirmed this strong performance also in the competition and was fifth. Young Japanese Naoki Nakamura presented himself in a strong shape as well and was able to further improve his very good 13th place from Wisla in seventh today.

Besides Karl Geiger, Andreas Wank (9th), David Siegel (13th) and Richard Freitag (14th) provided a good team result for Germany. Stephan Leyhe (21st), Constantin Schmid (29th) and Pius Paschke (30th) also qualified for the final round.

In his first appearance this summer, four-time Olympic champion Simon Ammann came in 26th, right behind his teammate Gregor Deschwanden.

In absence of the A-team around Halvor Egner Granerud, who was third in Wisla a week ago, none of the Norwegian jumpers made the cut for the final round in Hinterzarten. Joacim Oedegaard Bjoereng and Robin Pedersen clearly missed the Top 30 in 45th and 49., Marius Lindvik failed to qualify on Friday.

Kamil Stoch now leads the overall ranking of the FIS Grand Prix with the maximum of 200 points, Piotr Zyla (130 points) and Karl Geiger (116 points) follow in second and third.

The Grand Prix continues for the ski jumpers next week in Einsiedeln (SUI), where an individual competition is held on August 4th.