Intro:

Austria's Michael Hayboeck led the way in Friday's qualifying in Zakopane, Poland for Sunday's individual men's World Cup event.

Script:

field of 68 ski jumpers was trimmed to 40 on Friday in qualifying for Sunday's individual men's World Cup event in Poland.

Mikhail Maksimochkin moved into the provisional lead when the Russian's 130.5-metre jump garnered 135.2 points from the judges.

Andreas Wank was next up, but his effort was six metres shy.

The German was so close to equalling his Russian opponents score - he just missed out by just one-tenth of a point.

But it's as Austrian Michael Hayboeck, who finished qualifying in first place after his jump of 128 metres received 143.4 points from the judges.

He'll be the one to beat come Sunday's event which is preceded by a team event on Saturday.