In front of thousands of fans screaming and waving Austrian flags, Gregor Schlierenzauer won the third stage of the Four Hills ski-jumping tournament in Innsbruck on Sunday.

"I am lost for words. This is a great hill and it was fantastic in front of the home crowd," he gasped in front of cameras afterwards.

"Almost every day, I passed by this jump and I said to myself that I wanted to win here," he added.

Schlierenzauer dominated the field in difficult wind conditions to step into second place behind overall leader and fellow countryman Andreas Kofler and in front of Wolfgang Loitzl, also of Austria.

Clean podium sweep?

Schlierenzauer grabbed the best jump in both rounds on Sunday, soaring to 130 meters in the first jump and 122 meters in the second, yielding a comprehensive 251.1 points.

Simon Amman of Switzerland was a distant second with 237.8 points (128.5m, 117.5m) and Janne Ahonen of Finland close behind with 237.4 points (128m, 117.5m).

Overall leader Kofler was fourth with 235.1 points (126m, 118.5m).

Heading into the final stage on Wednesday with the top three spots, Austria is looking to complete their first clean sweep of the final podium places at the German-Austrian hosted event since 1974-75.

Wednesday's event will be held at the Austrian hill, Bischofshofen, where Kofler has a wafer-thin 14.6 points lead over Schlierenzauer and 22 points over Loitzl.

glb/AFP/dpa

Editor: Sonia Phalnikar