Kamil Stoch wins the 69th 4-Hills-Tournament

With an outstanding performance in the final event in Bischofshofen (AUT) on Wednesday evening, Kamil Stoch of Poland won the overall title of the 4-Hills-Tournament for the third time in his career.

The 33-year-old three-time Olympic champion was unbeatable on the Paul-Ausserleitner-hill. With his jumps of 139 m and 140 m and 300.7 points, he never left any doubt in the last of four competitions that he will claim his next big title.

"I'm really happy and totally satisfied with this result. I just want to enjoy this moment right now, tomorrow will be a new day with new challenges. I'm also very thankful to the entire team, especially the coaches, they are doing such a great job", said Stoch, for whom this was already the 38th individual World Cup win, he now only needs one more win to catch up to the most successful Polish ski jumper so far, Adam Malysz.

Marius Lindvik had a great comeback on the hill today. After his third place in the 4-Hills opener in Oberstdorf, the Norwegian could not take part in the two competitions in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck due to tooth pain and a surgery in Innsbruck. Today he presented himself in very strong shape again and came in second with his jumps of 137 m and 140.5 m and 280.4 points. "It was a really good day for me today. I'm very happy about the result and I hope I can continue to show such good jumps also in the next competitions. I had to stay in the hospital for two days, but everything went well", told the Norwegian.

Karl Geiger was able to make amends for the big disappointment in Innsbruck today. For the Oberstdorf-native, the 4-Hills-Tournament ended with jumps of 138 m and 133.5 m and 277.3 points and a third place in Bischofshofen.
With his performance today, Geiger also took the second place in the 4-Hills overall ranking, just ahead of Dawid Kubacki, who was only 15th today. Halvor Egner Granerud was also not able to live up to the high expectations with his 12th place in the final this evening. The World Cup leader even missed the podium of the 4-Hills-Tournament, only 0.4 points behind Kubacki.

"I'm very happy about the second place overall, it's a really great result. Every hill of the 4-Hills-Tournament is a challenge, especially Innsbruck was quite tough for me, but today I'm happy that I could show these great jumps and it's a happy end of the Tournament for me. It was a surprise that it went that well right from the start in Oberstdorf, then the 4-Hills-Tournament was full of ups and downs for me", said Geiger.

Dawid Kubacki was also very happy with how this day went: "I'm really happy about how the 4-Hills ended. The eagle is going to Poland again and I was on the podium with Kamil and we could sing the national anthem together. I'm not so satisfied with my jumps today. It was just not my day, maybe Kamil put something in my food. But overall it was a great day for Polish Ski Jumping."

With the fourth place on his home hill, local hero Stefan Kraft provided for a very good final day of the 4-Hills-Tournament for the Austrians, who had two more athletes in the Top 10 with Michael Hayboeck (6th) and Daniel Huber (10th). Yet another strong team result of the Poles was completed by Piotr Zyla and Andrzej Stekala in seventh and eighth, the best Japanese today was Yukiya Sato in ninth.

The Ski Jumping World Cup continues already on Friday, with the qualification in Titisee-Neustadt (GER), where two individual competitions will be held on Saturday and Sunday.

Results 
Overall ranking 4-Hills-Tournament

Statements after the competition in Bischofshofen (AUT)

Severin Freund: In the beginning, the 4-Hills wasn't that difficult for me, in Garmisch I had good jumps in training and in the qualification, but I had bad wind conditions in the competition there. Then it took a while for me to get back on track. After the tough day in Innsbruck, I'm happy that I could achieve a good result here today.

Markus Eisenbichler: I'm actually not that frustrated, I have to smile a bit about myself. Right now I'm just not that secure in the inrun position and at the take-off, especially on a difficult hill like this, such a bad jump can then happen. I've experienced this often before, so I'm not getting that angry about it anymore. During the 4-Hills I have always been fighting and this cost me a lot of strength and energy.

Pius Paschke: It just didn't go the way I would have wanted. In Engelberg, for example, everything was a lot easier for me, now it was more work again and that also shows in the speed again. Of course, my own expectations were higher and I was hoping for better results. But that's part of sports and it just didn't work this time.

Michael Hayboeck: I think I never had such a 4-Hills-Tournament. In the first two events, I wasn't in the final round, then I was in the Top 10 twice. So much has happened during this Tournament. Stefan and I were so close to the podium, that's what we wanted and I think we would have deserved it. We will continue to fight and I'm also happy about the sixth place today. The self-confidence is growing.

Daniel Huber: Finishing in the Top 10 is okay. Unfortunately, the last jump was not that good, that's a pity. But it was my best result and that's why I'm still satisfied. In some qualification rounds and also today, my performances were quite good.

Stefan Kraft: Last season I was fourth three times during the 4-Hills-Tournament and today again. I think I reserved this place. Maybe I can win the overall 4-Hills-Tournament once with fourth places in all four competitions. It's a pity that I wasn't on the podium, but I'm also very happy. The second jump was really cool, the first one was not perfect and I still came in fourth. Except for Garmisch, this was a great 4-Hills-Tournament.

Stefan Horngacher (Trainer GER): Of course I thought that Karl can make it. He is mentally strong and he was jumping very well today. In the end, you have to say that he achieved a great second place in this 4-Hills-Tournament. Kamil Stoch was unbeatable in this shape. I think we had a very good 4-Hills-Tournament, Constantin and Severin also jumped a lot better again today.

Andreas Widhoelzl (Coach AUT): It was definitely a better competition for us today, Stefan was very close to the podium, I guess he was a bit too far behind in the first round. We are on the right track and we continue fighting. It's a pity, that they are not able to repeat their training performances also in the competition. But they know that they are jumping well and that the performances are good. Today we had three in the Top 10, I think that's a good team result. I think we will achieve the first podium soon.

Alexander Stoeckl (Trainer NOR): I'm actually not a poker player, but together with the coaches and the athletes it's sometimes fun to try things. This winter it has already worked once, unfortunately, today it didn't. Yesterday I spoke to Halvor and he said he wants to take the risk. In order to score a lot more points than Kamil in top shape, you need two things: a very good jump of him, maybe a few bonus points from the compensation, and a worse jump of Kamil. Then we went down one gate, but unfortunately, he didn't make a perfect jump. If we would not have done this, he might have finished on the podium, but that made no difference for him.