Kamil Stoch and Dawid Kubacki enthuse their home crowd
Aug 18, 2019·Ski Jumping
Three-time Olympic champion Kamil Stoch of Poland won the FIS Grand Prix in Zakopane on Sunday. In this competition, which was held in difficult wind conditions, the local hero took the win ahead of his teammate Dawid Kubacki and Yukiya Sato of Japan.
Stoch already laid the foundation for this success with a 137.5 m jump in the first round. The local hero, who was raised and still lives only a few kilometers from Zakopane, then posted a jump of 132.5 m in the final and won with 250.8 points, 0.7 points ahead of his teammate Kubacki, who finished second. "I'm satisfied that I finally had some good jumps. I always enjoy jumping in front of the best fans in Zakopane. Right now I'm not focusing on the win or certain results, I think I'm on the right track. I have been training a lot over the past two months and so I'm even happier about this result today", said the winner.
Kubacki explains: "I gained some positive experiences this weekend. The competitions this weekend were nice and I showed good jumps. That's nice right before the vacation", said Kubacki, who will skip the next events in Japan.
The third place went to Japan's Yukiya Sato, who set a new hill record with 145 m in the first round and was also a member of winning team in Saturday's team competition. This third place is a career-best for Sato in the Grand Prix. "I'm very satisfied with the result and with my jumps. Yesterday I was very surprised that we could win the team event, so it was a very good weekend for me in Zakopane", said Sato.
Polen top, Japan strong
With Naoki Nakamura in fourth and Yuken Iwasa in ninth, the team of Japan achieved yet another strong result. Only the Polish athletes were better on Sunday in Zakopane. Besides Stoch and Kubacki, Piotr Zyla (6th) and Jakub Wolny (8th) could also finish in the Top 10.
Killian Peier of Switzerland confirmed his top shape in fifth, Timi Zajc was seventh and defend the overall lead in the Grand Prix. Johann Andre Forfang was the best Norwegian in tenth.
Not a good day for Germany
Best German was again Karl Geiger, who definitely didn't have any luck with the conditions. The Oberstdorf-native had to wait a long time before his second jump and then he didn't even have chance to fly far.
Geiger's teammates had a bad day in Zakopane: Richard Freitag was 25th, Stephan Leyhe 27th and Constantin Schmid 28th. Not a good result for the team of head coach Stefan Horngacher, who can live with that, because it's still only summer. "Unfortunately we are not yet where we want to be as a team and we also have to struggle with many injuries. But the athletes are getting a better understanding of what I want from them and we are on the right track. Actually, there's not a real difference between working in Poland or Germany, the mentality is a bit different, but the sport is the same", explained Horngacher, who was coaching the Polish team until the end of last season.
No chance for Schlierenzauer
Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer had no chance to achieve a top result today, and that even though he showed that he is in a top shape with two very strong jumps yesterday. The wind conditions in the first round made it almost impossible for Schlierenzauer jump far and so he finished only 35th and failed to qualify for the final round. Clemens Leitner was the best Austrian today in 16th, Stefan Kraft was 19th.
Canada's Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes finished 18th and scored his first GP points this summer.
The teams will now travel to Japan already on Tuesday, where the FIS Grand Prix in Hakuba will be held on Thursday (qualification), Friday and Saturday (two individual competitions). Ryoyu Kobayashi will make his first appearance of the summer in Hakuba where he won twice last year and started his winning streak that ended with the overall World Cup title last winter.
