Paweł Wasek wins in Rasnov

Poland's Pawel Wasek won the first of two FIS Grand Prix competitions in Rasnov (ROU) on Saturday. Wasek won with jumps of 95 and 92 meters, just ahead of the Austrian Ulrich Wohlgenannt (96.5 and 95 meters) and the American Kevin Bickner (97.5 and 91.5 meters). For Poland, Wasek's success is the first in over a year. In August 2023, Piotr Zyla won the Szczyrk Grand Prix for Poland.

"This is my first victory in the Grand Prix, of course I'm over the moon,” said a delighted Wasek, who didn't have the best conditions on either jump but was able to achieve the first major success of his career in a cool and experienced manner.
"This was a very important victory for me and for the whole team, we need success. I hope that my jumps in tomorrow's competition will be as good as they were today,” explained Wasek.

“I'm very happy with my jumps and second place today, considering that I've been really struggling recently. I knew that things would get better again and it went really well in the competition today. Now we'll wait for tomorrow's competition and then we'll see if I can maybe take part in the Grand Prix in Hinzenbach. In Austria we have a lot of very good athletes and therefore a luxury problem, I will definitely step on the gas and try to put the pressure on,” said Ulrich Wohlgenannt.

Another exclamation mark from the US team
After third place at the Grand Prix in Wisla (POL) last week, the US team managed another podium finish today.  After Tate Frantz in Wisla, Kevin Bickner made the US/NOR/EST team cheer with third place today. 

Bickner had even been in the lead after the first run.“Those were good jumps today and third place feels really good. We are training hard and have good training programs that we are doing. Our team is developing really well and I am confident that we will see more good results from our team in the future,” said a delighted Bickner.
In addition to Bickner, the other US athletes also impressed with Andrew Urlaub (8th place), Dean Decker (18th) and youngster Jason Colby in 27th place.

The team from France also performed extremely well. Ari Repellin and Enzo Milesi finished 11th and 12th, Jules Chervet was 16th. Even without a top 10 place, this was an outstanding result for the French team, which is making great strides towards the top of the world under the direction of head coach Nicolas Dessum.

Alex Insam now in the yellow Bib
In the overall Grand Prix classification, the Italian Alex Insam managed to leap to the top of the overall Grand Prix standings with 10th place in the daily classification.
Insam now leads with 213 points ahead of Stefan Kraft and Marius Lindvik (both 200 points) and Pawel Wasek, who made up 10 places with his stage win and is now in 4th place.

Surprise from Switzerland
The team from Switzerland also caused a big surprise. Swiss rider Felix Trunz finished in 5th place in the daily standings. Trunz placed well ahead of his team colleague Simon Ammann, who finished in 24th place today. However, Ammann is also clearly behind in training due to the numerous commitments that the 4-time Olympic champion traditionally has to fulfill over the summer.

The second men's Grand Prix in Rasnov starts on Sunday at 16:00.