COC-M: Muranka and Stekala shine in front of home crowd
Aug 10, 2019·Ski Jumping
The weekend of the Continental Cup in Wisla couldn't have started much better for the Polish ski jumpers and their fans: Klemens Muranka and Andrzej Stekala secured a 1-2 finish for the hosts on the Adam-Malysz hill on Saturday evening.
With a 125.5 m jump, Klemens Muranka laid the foundation for his ninth win in the COC already in the first round. In the final, the 24-year-old also had the best jump of the round with 128 m and his total of 257.3 points earned him the top spot on the podium for the first time since July 2017. "I was jumping really well in training and I was hoping that it would go that well also in the competition. My jumps were not perfect, but I'm very happy. Tomorrow I would like to jump on the same level and fight for the podium again", the winner said after the competition.
His teammate Andrzej Stekala came closest to the winner with 125 m and 126 m and 255.2 points and made it a very successful evening for the Polish team, for which Aleksander Zniszczol (7th) and Pawel Wasek (10th), also achieved very good results today. "After the training I didn't expect to be on the podium, I'm very satisfied with my jumps. I still made some mistakes, but I'm happy about the result", said Andrzej Stekala.
Philipp Raimund of Germany, fifth after the first round with 128 m, moved up to third overall with a second jump of 123.5 m and 248.7 points. With this performance, the 19-year-old from Oberstdorf made it to the podium in the COC for the first time in his career. "It is unbelievable, I'm really happy. I'm happy with both of my jumps and I think the hill here is awesome", said the young German.
Best Austrian was Clemens Leitner in fourth, he was followed by another athlete of the German Ski Association, Moritz Baer, in fifth. Sander Vossan Erikson was sixth and represented Norway in today's Top 10, that were completed by Russia's Roman Trofimov (8th) and German veteran Pius Paschke (9th).
In the overall ranking of the Continental Cup, the two Japanese Keiichi Sato (230 points) and Naoki Nakamura (225 points) still lead ahead of Russia's Evgeniy Klimov (200 points).
The second competition in Wisla starts on Sunday at 11 am CET.
