SKI JUMPING. 22-year-old Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan remains the "man of the winter". In the second competition in Nizhny Tagil, Kobayashi took a clear win and left no doubt who was the best on Sunday. He had the best jump in both rounds and also won the qualification right before the competition. Kobayashi was simply unbeatable today. Norway's Johann Andre Forfang and Piotr Zyla of Poland came in second and third.

Bulgarian Vladimir Zografski placed 15th in both Nizhny Tagil competitions

Today's win was the third in the World Cup for Kobayashi, who took all of them this season. Ryoyu Kobayashi was on the podium in each of the five individual competitions this season. In the interview after his success, the new highflyer was modest, as usual. "I had three good jumps today and I'm happy about it", said the younger Kobayashi brother. With Johann Andre Forfang, Piotr Zyla and Kobayashi, the same athletes were on the podium in both competitions in Nizhny Tagil, just the order was different.

Norway's Johann Andre Forfang, who won on Saturday, summed up the weekend: "The biggest difference to yesterday was that the conditions were a bit calmer and it was also a bit warmer. I think it's possible to jump much further than my hill record of 141.5 m. It's a really well-prepared hill and the conditions here are often quite good. So if we have a bit more headwind than today, it's safe to jump even further."

Piotr Zyla prolonged his great streak of the recent competitions with the third place this evening. In the overall World Cup, he is now ahead of his teammate Kamil Stoch, who finished fourth again. "The conditions were a little bit different today, but it was a really nice competition again", said Zyla, who is now second in the overall World Cup.

Johann Andre Forfang, Ryoyu Kobayashi, Piotr Zyla

Karl Geiger was the best German in fifth, Markus Eisenbichler and Andreas Wellinger in 10th and 13th provided for another good team result of the German ski jumpers. But with Stephan Leyhe, David Siegel, Severin Freund, and Richard Freitag only in 25th, 29th, 30th and 31st, they will not be completely satisfied. Richard Freitag fell after the landing in the first round, fortunately, he didn't suffer any injuries.

Young Finn Antti Aalto once again proved his strong shape today and his sixth place is remarkable. Aalto is jumping on a very high level and is on his way to establishing himself in the Top 10. The winner of the individual competition in Wisla, Evgeniy Klimov, is back among the world's elite with his eighth place. The Russian can be expected among the very best again in Neustadt.

After five competitions, Ryoyu Kobayashi clearly leads the overall World Cup with 420 points. Piotr Zyla (285 points) and Kamil Stoch (276 points) are second and third.
Poland leads the Nations Cup with 1125 points ahead of Germany (1035 points) and Japan (758 points).

The World Cup continues next weekend in Titisee-Neustadt (GER).

FIS ski jumping
December 02, 2018