Poland’s Kamil Stoch has defended his Four Hills Tournament victory in style, completing a clean sweep with a victory in Bischofshofen. He becomes the first to win all four events since Germany’s Sven Hannawald.Kamil Stoch received a big hug from retired German ski jumper Sven Hannawald after winning the fourth and final Four Hills ski jumping event in Bischofshofen, Austria and clinching his second consecutive Four Hills tournament victory.
Stoch, 30, also won the first three events at the German venues of Oberstdorf and Garmish-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck, Austria. As a result, he became just the second ski jumper to win all four events of the Four Hills Tournament. Hannawald, who is currently a pundit for Eurosport, was the first to complete the four-event sweep, doing so in 2001-02.
In Bischofshofen, a city in central Austria near the German border, Stoch had a jump of 132.5 meters in his first jump, the farthest jump of the first round. The Polish skier’s second jump of 137 meters was just enough to beat out Norway’s Anders Fannemel.
“I actually don’t know what to make of [the result],” Stoch told German broadcaster ARD afterwards. “The jumps were not perfect, but I did my best.”
Germany’s Andreas Wellinger, who had the second-farthest jump of the day at 139.5 meters, completed the podium in third. Norwegian Robert Johansson flew the farthest at 140 meters, but a poor first jump kept him off the podium.
With the Four Hills victory, Stoch also takes the overall World Cup lead from German Richard Freitag, who fell while landing in the tournament’s third leg in Innsbruck.
