September 5, 2008 (Zakopane, Poland) – The FIS Grand Prix Ski Jumping 2008 continued in Zakopane (POL) last weekend. Two competitions were scheduled for Friday and Saturday, one each, but the first competition had to be cancelled on Friday due to strong winds. Both competitions were then successfully held on Saturday within four hours of each other. In both of them, Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer, the current Grand Prix overall leader, took a clear victory. In the first competition, he landed the longest jumps in both rounds, winning by 12 points ahead of Michael Uhrmann of Germany. In the second competition, Uhrmann posted the longest second jump and took the runner-up position 6.4 points behind Schlierenzauer. Local talent Lukasz Rutkowski made the spectators happy by finishing third in the second competition.

“It was difficult to concentrate again after the prize-giving ceremony for the first competition. But now I am extremely happy about my two wins. This gave me a lot of self-confidence for the upcoming competitions,” commented Schlierenzauer.

After six of the ten competitions, Schlierenzauer now leads the Grand Prix overall rankings with 470 points, ahead of Andreas Kofler (AUT) who has 315 points and Uhrmann, who has collected 287 points. The Grand Prix will continue in Hakuba (JPN) in ten days’ time.