After he won the Grand Prix opener in Courchevel (FRA), Maciej Kot of Poland also took the win in the second individual competition of the FIS Grand Prix 2016. In an exciting competition in Wisla (POL), Kot came in ahead of top favorite Anders Fannemel of Norway and Germany's Andreas Wellinger with his jumps on 133.5 m and 127 m (250.3 points).

After a rather mediocre team result of Poland on Friday, Kot enthused the many spectators at the Adam-Malysz-hill in Wisla with his win today. 4000 fans witnessed a top performance by Kot under summer-like temperatures and again difficult wind conditions. The 25-year-old, representing the club AZS Zakopane, was already in the lead after the first round and then defended this half-time lead with his final jump.

"This was a great competition, after the team event yesterday didn't go as well as expected for us. Today I had two great jumps. This win today is a lot more important for me than the one in Courchevel, because almost all of the world's best jumpers were participating. The yellow bib is a nice motivation for me, but the winter is most important", Kot said after the competition.

Anders Fannemel, the best athlete in the team competition on Friday, finished second this time. Jumps on 131.5 m and 126.5 m (245.7 points) were enough to come in second, but not to really challenge Kot. But still, Fannemel was satisfied with this competition. "My jumps were a bit better yesterday, but it was okay today and I'm satisfied with the result. This is a very good start of the summer for me. I expected Maciej to be strong here, because he already proved in Courchevel that he is in a great shape."

The third place went to Andreas Wellinger, who came in close ahead of the two Slovenes Peter Prevc (4th) and Robert Kranjec (5th) with his jumps on 126 mand 125 m (241.8 points). "I'm always jumping well here in Wisla, I like this hill. Today I was able to implement everything I wanted and I hope that the summer will continue like that for me. I now have high expectations for the next competition in Hinterzarten. It went well there for our team last time, hopefully one of us can be on the podium again", told Wellinger.

Lead by Wellinger, the athletes of the German Ski Association showed some improvement compared to the opener of the series in Courchevel: Richard Freitag was 14th, Karl Geiger 15th, David Siegel 18th and Martin Hamann 23rd. Stephan Leyhe (31st) and Andreas Wank (34th) could not qualify for the final of the best 30.

Norway's Johann Andre Forfang lost his chance to achieve a much better result when he fell after posting the longest jump of the day on 134.5 m in the final. He didn't suffer any injuries and came in 12th.

Once again Stefan Kraft and Michael Hayboeck were the best of the Austrian team of head coach Heinz Kuttin. With the second best jump in the final round Kraft moved up from 12th to sixth overall. Michael Hayboeck finished ninth today.

Kento Sakuyama and Junshiro Kobayashi held the Japanese flag high in this competition. Sakuyama, last year's overall Grand Prix winner, came in 24th, Junshiro Kobayashi was 29th. Yumu Harada, Ryoyu Kobayashi and Kenshiro Ito failed to make the cut for the final. 

With his win today Kot extended his lead in the overall ranking of the Grand Prix. With the maximum of 200 points, Kot leads clearly ahead of his teammate Kamil Stoch (106 points) and Austria's Stefan Kraft (100 points). Best German in this ranking is Andreas Wellinger in fourth. 

The next competition of the FIS Grand Prix 2016 will take place in Hinterzarten (GER) on July 30th.

Source: fis-ski.com