Paschke dominates in Wisla and flies into third World Cup win of the season

Dec 08, 2024·Ski Jumping

Pius Paschke (GER) claimed his third World Cup victory of the 2024/25 season after a dominant display at the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Wisla, Poland, on Sunday.

Paschke topped the qualification rankings after performing an outstanding jump which was rewarded with 145.8 points. The World Cup leader then went on to improve even more as the day went on.

A strong first round gave Paschke a 3.4 point lead thanks to a phenomenal jump (149.0 points). The 34-year-old German then extended his lead even more with 149.6 points in the final round for a combined score of 298.6 points to further cement his place as the favorite in the World Cup tour this year.

A cool day for Paschke

"It's been a very cool day", Paschke said. "I'm very satisfied, I performed three good jumps. That's what I planned for since yesterday (when he finished third). It's even nicer when it leads to a win, of course. I'm now looking forward to next week, when we compete in Titisee-Neustadt (GER), the first World Cup on home soil for me this season."

The 34-year-old German, who is already enjoying his best-ever World Cup season to date, finished 8.5 points clear of second-place finisher Jan Hoerl (AUT) in Wisla.

Hoerl was happy about his own performance on the Polish hill. "It's going well so far this season", he said afterward. "I'm having lots of fun and I feel like I'm improving more and more. It's all starting to feel a bit easier, too. I had two good jumps and I'm happy with the outcome."

Hoerl rose from third in round one to second and amassed a total score of 290.1 points to finish ahead of Crystal Globe defender Stefan Kraft (AUT), who scored 286.1 points.

Tschofenig misses out

Daniel Tschofenig (AUT), who claimed his career-first individual World Cup victory on Saturday, missed out on the podium as he finished fourth (285.0 points).

Tschofenig was followed by Timi Zajc (SLO), who landed a season best result with a fifth place. Zajc was not the only one who managed to go better than before: Ren Nikaido (JPN) landed in sixth for a career-best result.

Gregor Deschwanden (SUI), second on Saturday, finished eighth after a disappointing second jump.

Two-time individual world champion Piotr Zyla (POL) returned to the World Cup stage with a 26nd -place finish (252.5 points). Zyla, who returned to international competition on home soil following knee surgery in August, had missed out on the top 30 on Saturday. Pawel Wasek (POL) recorded the best result for the hosts on Sunday: 11^th.

Special guest in Wisla

Zyla, Wasek and their Polish teammates had a special guest watching them from up close during the final round: Polish president Andrzej Sebastian Duda.

“It’s a great honour for us to have minister Duda here at our event”, FIS race director Sandro Pertile said. “This means the attention for ski jumping is extremely high in Poland. We can only be proud of that."

The FIS Ski Jumping World Cup season continues in Titisee-Neustadt, Germany, for the men and Zhangjiakou (CHN), for the women, next weekend (13-15 December).