Ski Jumping: Kamil Stoch wins Four Hills Tournament for 3rd time

Poland’s Kamil Stoch won the 69th Four Hills Tournament after an outstanding performance in the competition held in Bischofshofen, Austria. This was his third victory in this contest, after successes in 2017 and 2018.

Before Wednesday’s competition, Stoch was the leader of the tournament, ahead of Dawid Kubacki and Halvor Egner Granerud. The leader of the competition won the qualification phase on Tuesday. The surprise was that Slovenian Anže Lanišek did not manage to qualify for the event in Bischofshofen.

First round: very good performance of Stękała

Stoch, who competed with Canadian Matthew Soukup, confirmed his outstanding performance, flying 139m and winning the first round ahead of Geiger and Norwegian Marius Lindvik.

Stękała, who was first on the starting list, lost to Geiger who flew 138m, but thanks to a very good result of 135m, the Pole was the best of the “lucky losers” and made it to the final round, finishing the first phase in fourth place.

Piotr Żyła flew 134m and had no difficulties in defeating Austrian jumper Thomas Lackner and finished the first round in 10th place.

Kubacki faced Maciej Kot in the KO phase and easily defeated his teammate, because Kot flew only 113m, compared to 132m recorded by the incumbent title-holder of the Four Hills, who was classified 12th after the first attempt.

Aleksander Zniszczoł defeated Slovenia’s Domen Prevc and finished the first round in 22nd place, while Klemens Murańka lost to Yukiya Sato and failed to qualify to the final phase.

The sensation of the first round was the very weak performance of German jumper Markus Eisenbichler, who did not make it to the second round.

Second round: Stoch confirms his victory

The competition for victory in the Four Hills Tournament was in fact concluded after the outstanding jump of Stoch, but Geiger, Kubacki and Granerud were still in the fight for second place in the general classification.

Stoch confirmed his performance with a 140-metre-long jump and won the contest in Bischofshofen. Lindvik was second after a very good jump in the second phase (140.5m) and Geiger was third.

King Kamil wins the #4hills tournament 2020/21! �������������� pic.twitter.com/kjpEAe0n5d

— Vierschanzentournee (@vier_schanzen) January 6, 2021

The Pole won the general classification of the Four Hills Tournament for the third time. This was also his 38th victory in the Ski Jumping World Cup.

Kubacki flew 131.5m, which allowed him to finish the contest in 15th position, but the Four Hills Tournament in 3rd place. Granerud jumped 134m, which was not enough to outrun the Pole in the general classification.

Żyła jumped 136.5m in his second attempt and finished the contest in 7th place and the general classification in fifth place. Stękała was 8th in Bischofshofen and in the Four Hills Tournament he was classified 6th ex aequo with Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi.

Co za widok, co za widok❗️�� Dwóch Polaków na podium Turnieju Czterech Skoczni ������#skokoholicy #skijumpingfamily #tvpsport pic.twitter.com/NrhCvwf3z1

— TVP SPORT (@sport_tvppl) January 6, 2021

Zniszczoł finished the contest in 25th place, after a 123-metre-long jump in the second round.

The victory of Stoch occurred on the 20th anniversary of the victory of Adam Małysz in the Four Hills Tournament in 2001, which started the “Małysz-mania” and the ski jumping boom in Poland, which has been ongoing since then and will most likely last for many years to come. One of the participants of that event, Austrian jumper Manuel Fettner, competed in Wednesday’s contest.