The Pole, a double Olympic champion at Sochi 2014 and the back-to-back Four Hills Tournament winner, jumped 137 metres to top the pile.

This was enough for a points tally of 160.4 in front of his home fans.

Stoch, a double world champion, is hoping to recapture the World Cup title he won in 2014.

He has won four World Cup events this season - each one at a Four Hills Tournament leg.

The 30-year-old also won silver at last week's Ski Flying World Championships in Germany, where he missed out to Norway's Daniel Andre Tande.

The Norwegian is not competing in Zakopane through illness.

In all, the top 50 athletes have qualified for Sunday's (January 28) individual final.

Germany's Marcus Eisenbichler was second best, jumping 136.5m for 150.3 points.

Another German, Richard Freitag, managed 131m for 149.0 points and qualified third.

Freitag is second in the World Cup standings behind Stoch, on 711 points compared to the Pole's 733.

Defending overall World Cup champion Stefan Kraft of Austria was among others to make it safely through to the final.

A team event will be held in Zakopane tomorrow. 

In women's competition, Germany's Katharina Althaus topped qualification in Ljubno in Slovenia.

The German skipped the last competition in Zao in Japan to train at home in preparation for next month's Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.

That saw her slip further behind leader Maren Lundby in second spot in the overall standings, but she returned to the circuit today by jumping 89m for 115.7 points.

Japan's defending overall World Cup champion Sara Takanashi jumped 90m but was only awarded 113.9 points to qualify second.

Austrian Daniela Iraschko-Stolz went even further, leaping 91m in third but scoring 107.7.

Lundby qualified for tomorrow's first individual final in 13th position, with German Olympic champion Carina Vogt also safely through in tenth.

A second individual final will be held on Sunday.