Peter Prevc took a clear win in the qualification
for the first individual competition of the FIS
Grand Prix in Wisla, Poland. The second of last
season's overall World Cup showed a jump on 134.5
m and with 143.3 points he now is in a great position
for Saturday's competition on the Adam-Malysz hill.
For the first time the results of the qualification
will also count for the competition result (as a
third competition round). With 129.5 m Norwegian
Anders Fannemel scored 136.5 points and came in
second. "It's an interesting innovation, there's
a lot more excitement. I like it", Fannemal
said to Berkutschi about the new competition format
afterwards.
Strong Norwegians
Also Rune Velta, fourth with 129.5 m and 131.7 points,
and Andreas Stjernen, who finished sixth with 128.5
m and 130.0 points, achieved a Top 10 result for
Norway. Stjernen told Berkutschi afterwards: "It
was a strong performance of our team today. We were
on a training camp on different hills in Austria
in June and we also had a three-week vacation. Now
we have a lot of energy." About the new competition
format he said: "I like the new system. I never
had good jumps in the qualification, but now that
it counts it works."
The youngster of the Norwegian team, Phillip Sjoeen,
had bad luck today. He showed an outstanding jump
on 133 m in training, but in the qualification he
was disqualified because his suit was not compliant
to the rules.
Zyla second - Stoch not among the best
Piotr Zyla was the best Pole in third with 126 m,
only two points behind Fannemel. Team Olympic Champion
Andreas Wellinger jumped on 126.5 m and came in
fifth behind Rune Velta with 131.5 points. His teammates
Richard Freitag (128.5 points), ski flying World
Champion Severin Freund (127.6 points) and Karl
Geiger (126.5 points) came in eighth, tenth and
12th.
While Maciej Kot achieved another good result for
Poland in seventh (129.8 points), it was not a good
day for double Olympic Champion Kamil Stoch. With
114.5 m and only 103.5 points the local hero was
only 47th. He is now already about 40 points behind
the leader Peter Prevc. Jurij Tepes had some luck
today. Right before the jump of the Slovene the
jury lowered the starting gate and moved it back
up and then the 25-year-old fell. "Such a bummer.
So I can't jump on Saturday", he told Berkutschi
right after the jump. But later there was good news:
He was 46th and still managed to qualify.
Premiere for Kuttin
Swiss super star Simon Ammann had a good start of
the summer and was ninth with 127.7 points. Best
Austrian in the first international competition
with the new head coach Heinz Kuttin was Michael
Hayboeck (126.9 points) in eleventh. Last winter
Hayboeck achieved his first podium result in the
World Cup in Wisla.
Tom Hilde, who was in the lead for while, was 13th
in the qualification with 125.9 points. He came
in 0.1 points ahead of 4-Hills-Tournament winner
Thomas Diethart of Austria. Gregor Schlierenzauer
followed in 16th with 125.4 points, right behind
local hero Jan Ziobro (125.5 points).
Jakub Janda, who surprisingly decided to continue
his career, was the best of the Czech team in 17th.
Antonin Hajek, Jan Matura, Lukas Hlava and Cestmir
Kozisek were 19th, 29th, 30th and 31st and also
qualified. Without veteran Noriaki Kasai, the Japanese
team could not achieve a top result today. Junshiro
Kobayashi was their best in 23rd. With Vladislav
Boyarintsev in 40th and Denis Kornilov and Mikhail
Maksimochkin in 42nd and 43rd, three Russian athletes
qualified for the competition.
New format
In the competition the 48 qualified jumpers will
now be seeded into four groups of 12 athletes. The
four best athletes of the qualification will lead
their groups. The best six of each group will qualify
for the final round. The results of the two competition
rounds and the qualification will then determine
the final result.
A team competition will be held in Wisla on Friday
at 8:30 pm CET, the individual competition takes
place on Saturday at 5:00 pm CET.
