Kamil Stoch, who took a dominant win on Tuesday in Lillehammer, was also the best in the qualification at the third stop of the RAW AIR 2018 in Trondheim.

The three-time Olympic champion and RAW AIR leader of Poland posted a jump of 140 m on Wednesday evening and scored a total of 155.4 points. Kamil Stoch, who presented himself in an outstanding shape on the past days, started his jump in this round from a lower gate than the rest of the field.

"It was a long but good day. The conditions were perfect for Ski Jumping so I enjoyed it here today. For tomorrow I hope for good weather conditions because that's most important for us. I expect a competition on a high level and hopefully, many fans will come to the hill to create a really good atmosphere", said Kamil Stoch.

The second place in this qualification went to local hero Andreas Stjernen, who showed the longest jump of the day on his home hill with 141.5 m and was the only athlete to land beyond the hill-size mark of 140 m. The 29-year-old scored 153.1 points for his strong jump and if he can continue like that tomorrow he will definitely be able to fight for one of the top spots tomorrow.

Stefan Kraft of Austria confirmed his positive trend towards the end of the season with a jump of 140 m (147.5 points) and the third place today. 

Norway's Robert Johansson, who achieved his first podium finish of the World Cup season yesterday in Lillehammer, came in fourth, followed by the two best Germans, Richard Freitag (5th) and Andreas Wellinger (6th). Peter Prevc also showed a convincing performance and finished seventh. Right behind the Slovene, Dawid Kubacki, Johann Andre Forfang, Daniel Andre Tande and Maciej Kot on the places eight to eleven provided once again strong team results for Poland and Norway.

Noriaki Kasai, Taku Takeuchi, and Michael Hayboeck had some luck and barely qualified for the competition. Gregor Schlierenzauer, on the other hand, came in only 53rd after good jumps in the training rounds and failed to make the cut.

In the overall ranking of the RAW AIR, Kamil Stoch (1296.9 points) now has a lead of about 70 points. Robert Johansson could defend his second place and with 1226.7 points he is currently ahead of his teammates Andreas Stjernen (1206.6 points) and Johann Andre Forfang (1191.6 points).

The competition in Trondheim will start on Thursday at 5 pm CET.

Full results
RAW AIR Tournament

Source: fis-ski.com