Maciej Kot wins first individual competition of the Summer Grand Prix 2012

Maciej Kot wins first individual competition of the Summer Grand Prix 2012

The young Pole clearly convinced with his jumps of 128 and 123m (252.2 points) followed by Simon Ammann (245.3 points) and Wolfgang Loitzl (243.7 points).

The Saturday in Wisla was one of those rare competitions without wind problems, with sunny but not too warm weather – and surprisingly without any disqualifications.

Already in the beginning, it was clear that Poland has a really strong team in this summer season. Bartlomiej Klusek started with 121.5 meters, which brought him the leadership until Lukas Müller from Austria jumped 123.5 meters. Maciej Kot and Kamil Stoch both jumped 128 meters in first round, leaving Kot the better Pole because Stoch had a longer inrun length.

Once again, this states that Poland is a winner nation during the SGP again. Hopefully they manage to keep their form for the following World Cup season.

Also in a good condition is Simon Ammann, who showed the longest jump of the day: 130 meters.

However, the judges stayed low with their points – the only one given a 19.0 was Wolfgang Loitzl for his great performance in the final round, which let him climb from place eleven to the third rank.

While Ammann already had 8 points less than Kot, the other places where close together, making the jumping an exciting event. The final round proud a bit of trembling for Maciej Kot because he jump one meter less than the experienced Swiss Ammann. But in the end his head start from the first round brought him his first victory in a Summer Grand Prix. Team mate Stoch on the other hand lost his good position to place seven, while the other Polish athletes could be happy with place 13 (Klusek), 15 (Kubacki), 16 (Zyla) and 20 for newcomer Krzysztof Biegun.

For the guys from Norway and Finland it was a disappointing day. World Cup winner Anders Bardal (25th) and Tom Hilde (19th) have been the only Norwegians in the final round. Romøren as well as Sklett didn’t make it to the final round. Same happened to Janne Happonen and Olli Muotka. Anssi Koivuranta was the only Finn in second round and landed on the 26th rank.

Jurij Tepeš performance (4th, 125 and 126.5m; 243.4 points) on the other hand made hungry for more. Unfortunately team mate Robert Kranjec forced too much and flailed his arms to 79 meters in the final round, which made him 30th in the end.

While Austria just send his young ones among coach Alexander Diess and let Morgenstern, Kofler and Schlierenzauer in training, only Severin Freund was missing in the German team. He is already back in training after his spinal disk surgery but will appear in the Summer Grand Prix later this season. His team showed good results with three athletes in top ten: Freitag (5th , 127 and 125m), Neumayer (8th, 125.5. and 126m) and Andreas Wank with rank nine and jumps of 125.5 and 126 meters. Maximilian Mechler still got space to improve and landed on place 28. Youngsters Daniel Wenig and Danny Queck didn’t reach the final round.

For all of you, who didn’t know: Matti Hautamäki is becoming train driver. As he stated some time ago this was one of his dreams since a long while.

Adam Malysz - eponym for Wisla's jumping hill - commenting on the jumping; picture by Jory de Ruiter)

The next Summer Grand Prix will take place in Courchevel in France on August 14th and 15th.

- by Peggy Kierstan (@pikayartist)