Maciej Kot wins the qualification for the first winter competition in Wisla!

Maciej Kot wins the qualification for the first winter competition in Wisla!

09/01/2013 11:21

The 21-year old Maciej Kot won sovereignly with 129m (130.2points) ahead of Dimitry Vassiliev and Stefan Kraft from Austria. With this he is celebrating his third qualification win. Kot, who has been on the highest place on the podium three times in summer- once also in Wisla, may take this a chance to finally get a top three result in an individual WC competition also.

The introspective Wisla with its about 11.000 inhabitants is in the very south of Poland and in the World-Cup for the first time. As Adam Malysz's home, the popular Summer-Grand-Prix venue is now opener for the tour east, which will continue in Zakopane on Friday.

Stefan Kraft, who finished the Four-Hills-Tournament finals in Bischofshofen on the third place, gives the experienced jumpers fire with his performance of 139m (129.2points)- the farthest jump in the whole competition. This definitely makes him the Austrian Wellinger. He finished on rank three, only 0.5points behind the best jumper that the Russian Federation has: Dimitry Vassiliev. This time, Vassiliev also showed a good telemark and jumped on the second place with 127m and acceptable judges-points (129.7points).

Also Lauri Asikainen got an amazing result. His jump of 132.5m must have surprised him as much as us. With this he landed on rank five behind Dawid Kubacki (130.5m) and ahead of Wolfgang Loitzl, who didn't seem to be satisfied with place six (124.5m).

The spreading of lengths was owed to the changing wind conditions, which also made it possible for Vladimir Zografski to land a 134.5m- try (10th).

As the latest trends show, Robert Kranjec (7th), Roman Koudelka (8th) and Krzysztof Mietus (9th) come in good shape again and make us curious about how they are able to jump in the competition.

While the Polish team has to start without Jan Ziobro and Klemens Muranka (both had bad conditions and didn't make it into the competition) all German eagles were able to become qualified. Danny Queck was the best of them and got rank 12. Prequalified Freitag showed the best length for Germany with 131m. Best Norwegian has been Rune Velta on the 18th place- not regarding that they have three athletes in top ten.

Denis Kornilov is already back after his bad fall in Bischofshofen and takes his pain bravely, he will also be part of the competition on Wednesday. Manuel Fettner is still home and hopes for the start of his training at this very weekend.

Four-Hills-Tournament winner Schlierenzauer managed the farthest jump of the top ten (133.5m)- but Stoch, Jacobsen and Co. are on the way to tackle him. There's no direct comparison possible as Kamil Stoch and Thomas Morgenstern didn't jump in the qualification but at least Stoch's training results of 133m show that there is serious rivalry.

Youngster Andreas Wellinger and his teammate Severin Freund take a break after the Four-Hills-Tournament and give Karl Geiger and Maximian Mechler the chance to participate in Wisla's competition.

Let's also take a look at Slovenian Anze Semenic. The 19-year old jumper, who won the last COC in Zakopane last weekend, cut a fine figure in the qualification for his first WC- attendence (21st).

Andrea Morassi and Roberto Dellasega, who got their chance because of their results in the COC in Zakopane also, will be part of the competition, which sets place on Wednesday at 20.30. They are holding up the flag for Italy as Colloredo and Bresadola are absent for training.

So we can be excited for the first winter competition in Wisla. Tell us your opinion: What do you think about having Wisla as a WC-venue? Would you say, it's a good idea for some athletes to take a break after the Tournament?

This (and anything else that you would like to tell us) we would like to get to know here. So feel free to leave comments and ask questions.

And don't forget to follow the first winter competition in Wisla, Poland, today at 20.30 and afterwards right here.

• by Peggy Kierstan (@pikayartist)