Stoch leads after 1st round in large hill

Krasnaya Polyana, Russia (SportsNetwork.com) – Poland’s Kamil Stoch led all jumpers after the first round of the large hill event Saturday at the Sochi Games.

Stoch, who has already won gold in the normal hill, didn’t make a qualifying jump on Friday because he leads the World Cup standings and the top 10 jumpers automatically qualified for Saturday’s competition.

He made his presence felt on Saturday, though, with a jump of 139 meters and a total of 143.4 points.

Noriaki Kasai of Japan jumped just as long as Stoch, but finished 2.8 points behind him. Germany’s Severin Freund was third with 140.2 points.

Austria’s Michael Hayboeck, who led all qualifiers on Friday, was in ninth place after Saturday’s first jump with 127.3 points.

Four-time Olympic gold medal winner and Vancouver champion Simon Ammann of Switzerland barely qualified and was 29th going into the final round, which is also taking place Saturday.

The U.S. did not qualify any jumpers for the final.

Categorized in: Olympics