Maciej Kot of Poland won the second-to-last event of the FIS Summer Grand Prix 2016 in Hinzenbach (AUT). After a 4-week long break from competition Kot confirmed his outstanding shape in the summer 2016. With today's victory Kot also crowned himself overall winner of the Grand Prix 2016 already before final in Klingenthal (GER) on Sunday.

Jumps of 92 m and 93 m (257.2 points) earned Kot a clear win ahead of his teammate Dawid Kubacki (91.5 m and 91.5 m; 247.5 points) and Peter Prevc of Slovenia (90.5 m and 89 m; 244.3 points). "I won here also four years ago, I like this hill a lot. But today's win means more to me than the one four years ago, because I won the competition and the overall title of the Grand Prix. Now I'm looking forward to the final in Klingenthal tomorrow. I know that have to continue working hard and listening to my coach so that I and we as a team can follow up on this summer's success in winter", the winner told.

With Dawid Kubacki in second and Stefan Hula, Kamil Stoch and Piotr Zyla also in the Top 15, the competition ended with a success for the Polish team under head coach Stefan Horngacher. "I'm really happy that I was able to implement what we have been working on over the past few weeks. It's a really good feeling, when you notice that the hard work in training pays off", Kubacki, who is known to be a "summer specialist", said after the competition. The new style of Stefan Horngacher, who became head coach of the Polish team after last winter, can already be seen. The Polish team made some technical adjustments to their jumping and that clearly pays off.

When watching superstar Peter Prevc it becomes obvious that winter is getting closer and closer. Prevc is slowly but surely getting in his best shape. "This was pretty intense today, it was extremely close. In such competitions it's always especially important to show a good landing. Honestly, ten days ago I wouldn't have thought that I can be in the Top 3 here today. I'm very satisfied with my jumps. Now we'll see how it goes in Klingenthal tomorrow. Some strong athletes, who were already there for the COC, will be competing and they had more rest", explained Prevc.

Best athlete of the German Ski Association was Andreas Wellinger, who showed a strong performance and finished fourth. He was the best of an also strong German team. Richard Freitag in ninth, Severin Freund (11th), who made his comeback after a long break due to injury, Karl Geiger in 18th and Andreas Wank in 22nd provided a very good team result. Wank had some back luck, when his binding broke in the outrun after his first jump and one of the boots was damaged. "Yes, it was annoying that I had to use new boots in the final. But actually it's better to do it already here today, than tomorrow in Klingenthal, because the hill there is a lot bigger", Wank summed up his day at work.

Stefan Kraft was the best Austrian in fifth, his teammate and local hero Michael Hayboeck came in seventh and achieved a very good result, but missed the podium finish he had hoped for in his home event. Phillip Aschenwald in tenth completed the good team result of the Austrians.

Once again during the course of this summer, the audience saw a ski jumping event on a very high level. The list of names who failed to make the cut for the final reads like a who's who of ski jumping: Jernej Damjan, Taku Takeuchi, Anders Fannemel, David Siegel, Daniel-Andre Tande and a few other strong athletes couldn't qualify for the final round of the best 30 jumpers.

With today's result Maciej Kot secured the overall win of the FIS Grand Prix 2016 already before the season's final event in Klingenthal. Kot leads the ranking with 480 points, followed by Andreas Wellinger of Germany (335 points) and Taku Takeuchi (JPN / 266 points).

The teams will now travel to the FIS Grand Prix final in Klingenthal right away. An exhausting day awaits the athletes and coaches in the Vogtland-Arena, where also COC serial and overall winner Markus Eisenbichler of Germany will be competing on Sunday.

The training in Klingenthal starts on Sunday at 9:30 am CET, followed by the qualification at 11:30 am and the competition at 3:00 pm. We will be there!

Source: fis-ski.com