Kraft, who recently earned double bronze at the Ski Flying World Championships in Bad Mittendorf, produced two jumps of exactly 133 metres, earning him a score of 307.3 points.

His total proved enough to beat compatriot Michael Hayboeck, who registered 130.5m and 138m to clinch silver, while current overall World Cup leader Peter Prevc could only manage third.

The result handed Kraft his first success of the season after he had suffered a series of near-misses earlier on in the campaign.

Slovenian Prevc, who has been on a sensational run of form of late, leapt 125m as well as recording the best jump of the day, 140m, but it proved to be in vein as he was denied a fifth straight World Cup triumph.

Despite losing out to the Austrian duo, Prevc remains the one to beat as he leads the standings on 1084 points, 305 more than nearest challenger Severin Freund of Germany, who didn’t compete due to injury.

Norwegian Kenneth Gangnes, who won his first-ever World Cup event on home snow in Lillehammer, which hosted the 1994 Winter Olympic Games and will stage the upcoming Winter Youth Olympic Games, in December, occupies third position on the leaderboard.

“It was a great competition, my first win this season,” Kraft said.

“Being on top of the podium ahead of Michael is awesome.

“After I closely missed the podium four times, it's great to stand on top of it now."

Prevc remained satisfied with his performance although he admitted a mistake in the second jump proved costly.

“I'm very happy to be on the podium,” he said.

“It's always special here in Zakopane.

“My first jump was very good, in the second round I made a mistake at the take-off, that's why I couldn't jump that far.”

Sapporo, Japan is the next stop on the Ski Jumping World Cup calendar, with the event due to get underway with qualification on Friday (January 29) before it concludes on Sunday (January 31).