COC-M: Taku Takeuchi claims the win

Taku Takeuchi of Japan claimed his first-ever win in the Continental Cup on Saturday afternoon in Stams (AUT).

The 32-year-old, whose best COC result so far was the second place in Planica in January 2007, was clearly the best athlete on the HS 115 today with his jumps of 111.5 m and 113 m and a total of 260.2 points. Of course, he was very satisfied with this performance: "I had two good jumps today. Hopefully, I'll also be in good shape again on Sunday."

The second place went to Germany's Pius Paschke, who scored 247.4 points with 113.5 m and 111.5 m. "I like the hill in Stams. The field is always strong here in fall. My goal is to earn a spot on the World Cup team with strong performances", said Paschke.

Stefan Hula of Poland, who was second behind Takeuchi after the first round, came in close behind Paschke with 110.5 m and 108 m and 245.2 points.

Luca Roth of Germany missed the podium by only 0.3 points and equaled his career-best result in the COC in fourth. Anders Haare moved up from tenth to fifth in the second round and was the best of the Norwegians today.

Behind Rok Justin of Slovenia (6th) and Swiss Dominik Peter (7th), who was never that good in the Continental Cup before, Ulrich Wohlgenannt was eighth and the only jumper of the hosting Austrian team among the best today. The ninth place went to Norway's Andreas Granerud Buskum.

Killian Peier posted the longest jumps in both rounds with 114.5 m and 113 m, but because he fell in the first round, the Swiss was only 30th after the first half of the competition. With yet another very strong performance in round two, he was able to move up to tenth, tied with Poland's Aleksander Zniszczol.

Rok Justin remains in the lead in the overall ranking of the COC with 549 points, followed by Klemens Muranka (484 points) and Pius Paschke (406 points).

Sunday's competition in Stams will start at 1 pm CET.

Full results