Malysz takes home World Cup trophy; Polish team places fifth in final ranking

Despite finishing fourth yesterday in the last World Cup ski-jumping event of the season, held in Planica, Slovenia, Adam Malysz was awarded with the World Cup trophy, which he had already clinched one weekend earlier. Malysz, the winner of 11 out of a total of 21 World Cup competitions, leaped 212.5 meters, putting him three places behind his main contender Martin Schmitt of Germany, who jumped 218.5 meters to his sixth victory of the season. Nevertheless, Malysz scored 1,531 points overall to Schmitt's 1,173 and Finn Risto Jussilainen's 938, giving him the world title in ski-jumping this season. Poland managed to take fifth place in the team competition on Saturday. Thousands of Poles looked on as President Aleksader Kwasniewski, who is on a friendly visit to his Slovene counterpart Milan Kucan, awarded the trophy. (Rzeczpospolita, p.1; Reuters) M.K.