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Besides the win in Innsbruck, he was 11th in Obersdorf, fifth in Garmisch and second in Bischofshofen, which was enough for third place overall, behind Sigurd Pettersen of Norway and the Austrian Martin H"llwarth. Only Peterka was better in 1997 when he won the competition. Zonta's win was the 26th World Cup win in Slovenian ski-jumping. Zonta, who won only days before his 25th birthday, had never managed better than fifth in his nine years in the World Cup. He came close to the podium on several occasions (his best results before this year had been two fifth places and one fourth), however, he had never managed to make the final 'leap'. His failures had a destructive influence on him and hardly anyone believed that he would ever make it, despite his claim that he had not yet done everything he was capable of. "When I started training for this season I vowed not to give up before the first win in the World Cup. I had a feeling that five minutes of fame were finally within my reach and right now I am on cloud number nine. What a shame that such moments are so rare", said an ecstatic Zonta, an employee of the Slovene police and also a student at the police academy in Ljubljana. He was paid some 30,000 Euros for his podium finishes, which was criticised by the media as the organizers are making millions of Euros of profit and the 70,000 Swiss francs fund for each event is a minimum set by the International Ski Federation. Otherwise, Zonta is a qualified stonecutter, since stonecutting is his family tradition. He is famous for taking an analytical approach to everything he does: "I have been dreaming of a World Cup win for nineteen years - since I made my first jump at the age of six - and this win, especially in the Four Hills competition, is a great reward for all my efforts. My confidence has grown; I am aware of the fact that I am on top right now and I am looking forward to the next events." Zonta has won points in all of the World Cup events this year and is currently among the top 10 in the World Cup rankings. It seems that only the sky is the limit for this quiet native of Ljubljana and top ten finishes now seem to be a matter of routine. After years of crisis, Slovenian ski-jumping is finally on its way back to top. Rok Benkovic, the Junior World Championship runner-up, has managed some promising performances and his coach Matjaz Zupan is strongly convinced that he is in good shape for the second half of the season. Primoz Peterka has shown a few signs of his former glory, while Damjan Fras and Robert Kranjec, members of the bronze-winning Olympic team, are struggling to make it into the top 30. However, there are a whole host of young jumpers, waiting in the wings for the national team.