Simon Ammann showed an impressive performance in Kuusamo and celebrated his first win in the World Cup since December 2013.

The four-time Olympic Champion of Switzerland scored 284.1 points with his jumps on 139.5 m and 142 m and took a clear win ahead of the two Japanese Daiki Ito and Noriaki Kasai.

After his 22nd win in the World Cup Ammann said: “It was important today to have a very good jump in the first round. My training was not so good, but somehow I managed to keep it together. I was very high over the knoll in the first round. This good feeling gave me power in the second round. I’m really happy that everything worked out so well. I still have some things to work on, like my landing. It’s important to be in front so early in the season, because the conditions can be unpredictable. This was quite an old podium today."

Ito surprised by his performance

Ito achieved his first podium result in a year with 138 m and 137.5 m and 276.1 points. He told afterwards: "I'm satisfied, but I don't know why I was on the podium today. I just started training in October, that's why I can't believe that I achieved such a good result. It's always windy in Ruka and I'm always a bit afraid to jump here. The conditions today were okay and I also had some luck."

With 131 m and 136.5 m and 270.5 points, his 42-year-old teammate Kasai showed that he has to be reckoned with also this winter. "I like this hill here in Ruka. I'm satisfied with my result and also surprised by my jumps. I didn't train much in summer because I was busy with TV appearances. We have a Finnish coach and he organized a training camp here for us. He is a very good coach and he helped me to improve my jumps."

Austrian Andreas Kofler, who showed the longest jump of the day with 144.5 m in the first round, surprised in fourth. With 137 m in the final he missed the podium by 2.9 points. Kofler's teammate Stefan Hayboeck came in fifth and confirmed the upward trend of the Austrian team with his jumps on 132 m and 131.5 m and 263.8 points.

Fannemel and Asikainen strong

While Anders Bardal, the winner of the qualification, could not follow up on this performance and finished only 19th, Anders Fannemel was the best Norwegian in sixth with 262.0 points. Severin Freund, third after the first round, was seventh in the end with 261.1 points. Finland's Lauri Asikainen also achieved a Top 10 result in eighth with 254.9 points. 0.4 points behind, Peter Prevc was ninth, Roman Koudelka, who won the competition in Klingenthal, finished tenth with 253.2 points. Rune Velta came in eleventh and was followed by four Germans, Markus Eisenbichler, Andreas Wellinger, Marinus Kraus and Richard Freitag, on the places 12, 14, 15 and 16. Austrian Stefan Kraft was 13th. In absence of the injured overall World Cup winner Kamil Stoch and Junior World Champion Jakub Wolny, the Polish team is still not in top shape. Piotr Zyla was the only one who could score points for Poland in Kuusamo. He was 17th. The Slovenian veterans Jernej Damjan and Robert Kranjec showed an upward trend compared to the World Cup opening last week and were 18th and 20th today. Ville Larinto came in on a good 21st place in front of his home crowd.

Schlierenzauer not in top shape yet

Austrian star Gregor Schlierenzauer is still struggling with his shape this winter and was only 24th. Valery Boyarintsev scored points for Russia in 27th. Janne Ahonen qualified for the final round in his first competition this season and came in 29th.

The second competition in Kuusamo follows on Saturday at 4:00 pm CET.