SKI JUMPING. The FIS GP 2011 is history and with Kamil Stoch a Polish jumper is the last winner of the summer. The 24-year-old who already won on this hill in the World Cup in February also captured the victory in summer in the "Vogtland-Arena" in Saxonia.

With 279.3 points it was a clear victory ahead of Gregor Schlierenzauer (254.1 points), who was defeated by his Polish rival for the third time in a row on his favorite hill. Stoch participated in eight competitions this summer and was on the podium six times - a great streak. "I'm satisfied with the performance today and my shape. I showed normal jumps today and I have a good feeling on this hill", said the winner.

"I'm not satisfied with my performance, but I'm satisfied with the podium result", said Schlierenzauer how draws a positive balance after the GP. "The summer was okay for me, I was on the podium in every competition. It's good to know that eveything works well for me. I will continue focusing on myself and not on the competition with Thomas and Kamil."

Third was - just like in Hinzenbach - Cezch Roman Koudelka (251.4 points), who can really look forward to the upcoming season with results like these. "This hill is unbelievable, I never had such a good feeling here. But everything is possible in this sport. Somebody else can be better tomorrow."

Great performance of Stoch - Zyla lies in waiting

Stoch laid the foundation for this victory with a great jump in the first round when he used the good conditions to jump on 140.5 m. That earned him a lead of 13 points for the final round. There he showed the longest jump again and celebrated his fifth victory in the FIS GP.

The fourth place of Piotr Zlya (245.5 points), who is very strong at the take-off and not only showed a good performance not only in Klingenthal, proves that the Polish team did a very good job. Zyla, who finished fifth in the FIS GP ranking, also has to be reckoned with in winter. Martin Koch from Austria finished fifth today, ahead of the best German Severin Freund and three more Austians, Manuel Fettner, Michael Hayboeck and Wolfgang Loitzl. Five Austrians in the Top 10, and that without FIS GP winner Thomas Morgenstern and Andreas Kofler, who can't train at the moment due to back problems. Italian Andrea Morassi came in on a strong ninth place. Young Bulgarian Vladimir Zografski was eleventh, followed by Japanese Daiki Ito.

Some athletes had problems with side-wind

In the first round some top athletes had problems with the conditions. Also local hero Richard Freitag was among the jumpers who were struggeling with the side wind in the first part of his jump and landed early. The same fate was shared by the Slovenes Robert Kranjec and the winner of the competition in Almaty, Jurij Tepes. Schlierenzauer also had problems but because of his great shape he was still able to jump far and finish on the podium.

Jernej Damjan was the only jumper from Slovenia in the final round - he was 22nd. Russian Dimitri Vassiliev and Germany's Georg Spaeth could not qualify for the second round. David Winkler was able to score points again as 16th and attracted some attention again after his 18th place in Almaty - head coach Werner Schuster will be happy to see that.

Norwegians with problems- Finns on the up

Bjoern Einar Romoeren and Johan Remen Evensen, who focus more on the athletic abilities now with the new head coach Alexander Stoeckl, are still not in a good shape. The two experienced athletes are having problems with these changes this summer. Also Anders Bardal could not qualify for the final. So Rune Velta (20th) and Tom Hilde (26th) were the best Norwegians. It will be interesting to see if the athletes of Stoeckl will be able to keep up with the athletic level of the Austrians at the World Cup opening. There are still seven weeks to go until the first World Cup competitions in Kuusamo (FIN) late November.

It seems that the Finns are experiencing an upward trend towards the World Cup season. Matti Hautamaeki was the best of his team as 15th. With Janne Happonen (20th) and Anssi Koivuranta (25th), tow more Finns could score points. This shall make work a bit easier until the season starts in their home country.

Stoch now second in the overall ranking

Morgenstern won the overall ranking of the FIS GP with 620 points already at the second last competition in Hinzenbach and after that he stayed in Austria for some training. Kamil Stoch is second (505 points), ahead of Hilde (443 points) and Schlierenzauer (400 points).

FISskijumping.com
03.10.2011 17:40