Almost exactly two years ago Thomas Thurnbichler in Wisła he made his debut in the World Cup as a coach of Polish jumpers. How did he do? On Saturday, Dawid Kubacki was the first, Piotr ¯y³a fifth, Kamil Stoch tenth, and the competition finished with 15th points: Paweł Wąsek, 23rd Tomasz Pilch and 27th Stefan Hula. In total, our team scored 199 points in the Nations Cup classification and took the lead in it. Coach Thurnbichler made his debut as well as any other Polish coach in history.
Kubacki after jumping at 130.5 and 132.5 meters he overtook Halvor Egner Granerud by 5.6 points and Stefan Kraft by 14.4 points. He confirmed that after the summer domination he is the best jumper in the world at the start of the winter season. And in conversations with journalists he showed that he simply knows it and feels it. – When, after leaving the threshold, I saw the green line and felt like I was going to follow it, a gentle smile appeared in the air. It's a joy to make such jumps and win in front of your home crowd – he said.
Kubacki's victory was the first by a Polish jumper in almost two years. We were waiting for this from January 9, 2021, when Kamil Stoch won in Titisee-Neustadt, until November 5, 2022.
“Such a great star as Kamil Stoch”
Stoch showed great joy at his friend's success. First, he warmly hugged Kubacki on the landing – he waited for his final performance, being sure that it was worth the wait. Then Stoch came to the press conference and put on a show there.
– I have a question for Mr. Dawid. I wanted to ask you what you felt when such a great star as Kamil Stoch ran up to meet you and hugged you with full force after the last jump – he turned to the winner of the competition. – At first I was wondering whether to keep my guard up, but then I noticed open arms, so I didn't have to and I was glad – Kubacki laughed. Later, the winner was asked whether he thought Stoch was suitable to be a journalist. – Sure. I don't want to be rude, but I ask better questions than you, said the first leader of the World Cup general classification that season.
For the then 32-year-old Kubacki, putting on the leader's yellow jersey was another dream come true. After winning the world championship, winning the Four Hills Tournament or winning an Olympic medal.
Leader, dominator – Kubacki is great in his new role
– I still have my dreams come true, the season is long. But this yellow T-shirt will definitely take a special place in my pile of T-shirts in my collection. I always wanted to have the World Cup leader's jersey. I have it from the Grand Prix, I have it from the Nations Cup, now I have it from the World Cup – Kubacki was happy.
The next day, the leader defended his position and won again. Then he probably overtook Anże Laniska (by 8.3 points) and Marius Lindvik (by 10 points). Throughout the 2022/2023 season, Kubacki won six competitions and was on the podium as many as 15 times in 27 starts. If it weren't for the sudden illness of his wife, Marta, he would undoubtedly have finished that winter on the podium in the general World Cup classification (he was fourth).
We can remember the winter of 2022/2023 as the last one with Polish successes. The competition won by Kubacki in Lillehammer on March 16, 2023 is so far the last Polish victory in the World Cup. So we have been waiting for the next Polish triumph for almost two years, which is as long as we waited until Kubacki took over Wisła in November 2022. And we will wait. In Saturday's competition on the ski jumping hill. Adam Małysz, the best Pole, Paweł Wąsek, took only 11th place. Points were also scored by Aleksander Zniszczoł, ranked 16th, as well as Dawid Kubacki (25th) and Jakub Wolny (26th). Kamil Stoch (33rd), Maciej Kot (34th) and Piotr Żyła (35th) did not enter the second series.
The next competition will take place on Sunday at 3:15 p.m. They will be preceded by qualifications scheduled for 1:45 p.m. Live coverage on Sport.pl, broadcasts on TVP, Eurosport and on the MAX platform.