Jakub Wolny wins Grand Prix opener in Wisla
Jul 17, 2021·Ski Jumping
Poland's Jakub Wolny claimed his first big win in the Grand Prix in Wisla (POL). In a nail-biter, Wolny finished ahead of Austria's Jan Hoerl and his teammate Dawid Kubacki.
The atmosphere in the stadium of Wisla was amazing after Wolny's win, for the first time in more than a year, fans were allowed again at the hill, only 50 % of the capacity, but the atmosphere couldn't have been any better in a packed stadium. A Polish winner in front of a Polish crowd, the fans were celebrating enthusiastically.
"Of course it's very special to take my first win here in Wisla", said Wolny. "It went really well for me the entire weekend, my shape is good and now I'm looking forward to tomorrow's competition. I'm excited to see what I can do tomorrow", he explained after his triumph.
Besides the strong Poles, the Austrian jumpers also showed convincing performances. Markus Schiffner was fourth, Maximilian Steiner and Ulrich Wohlgenannt finished 11th and 12th.
Even though Markus Eisenbichler fell from second to fifth in the final round, the German team can also be satisfied with today's results. Not only Eisenbichler but also Karl Geiger (6th) and Constantin Schmid (8th) achieved good results. Severin Freund was 16th, Andreas Wellinger 23rd, and, after his 16-months long break due to an injury, Stephan Leyhe only narrowly missed the final round in 31st. Leyhe's goal for today's competition was the 30th place.
Local hero Kamil Stoch, who won the qualification yesterday, could not compete today due to an ankle injury. It's not clear yet, whether Stoch will be able to jump again on Sunday.
Out of the three Norwegian competitors, only Andreas Buskum qualified for the final round of the Top 30. Sondre Ringen and Bendik Heggli failed to make the cut in the first round. Head coach Alexander Stoeckl has decided not to take the A-team to Poland, because they would have had to quarantine for ten days after their return to Norway, which would have had interrupted their training. That's also the reason why the team of Japan is not competing in Wisla.
In his first competition on the job, new FIS equipment controller Mika Jukkara of Finland disqualified Tilen Bartol and Ziga Jelar of Slovenia and Poland's Klemens Muranka.
The second men's competition of the Grand Prix in Wisla starts on Sunday at 5:35 pm CET, it can be followed in our live ticker.
)
