Stoch jumps to win at Zakopane on home snow

Poland's Kamil Stoch won his first event of the season Friday in leaping to victory on home snow in the ski jumping World Cup at Zakopane. Stoch, 24, edged out Germany's Richard Freitag and Austria's Andreas Kofler, overall World Cup leader. The home favourite came through thanks to a huge second jump of 135 metres and gave him the victory almost a year to the day after his first career win at the same venue - on that occasion illustrious compatriot Adam Malysz, now retired, crashed. Four hills champion Gregor Schlierenzauer, could only manage 18th while quadruple Olympic champion Simon Ammann was 15th after failing to clear 120 metres with either effort. Stoch stands fifth in the overall standings which are headed by Kofler on 855 points to 766 for Schlierenzauer.