Ryoyu Kobayashi in a strong shape in Titisee-Neustadt
Jan 17, 2020·Ski Jumping
Ryoyu Kobayashi showed an impressive performance in the qualification in Titisee-Neustadt today after his bad days last weekend in Predazzo. The 23-year-old jumped on 137.5 m on the HS 142 hill and won ahead of Stephan Leyhe (GER) and Norway's Robert Johansson.
In continuous rainfall, the fans in the Black Forest saw a qualification on a high level in which Kobayashi came in 4.5 points ahead of Stephan Leyhe, who was 5.3 points ahead of Robert Johansson.
Peter Prevc and the older Kobayashi brother, Junshiro, finished fourth and fifth. The local hero and overall World Cup leader Karl Geiger finished ninth, only 1.8 points behind Poland's Dawid Kubacki, who is one of the top contenders for the overall World Cup title this season, just like Austria's Stefan Kraft, who was fifth today.
The lone competitor from Canada, Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes, had a very strong jump today and was tenth. With a similar result in tomorrow's competition, the Canadian might be able to achieve a new career-best result. So far the ninth place in Bad Mitterndorf 2014 is the best World Cup result of Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes.
Due to the competition format "Neustadt 5", today's round was the qualification for both competitions of the weekend and because only 51 athletes were taking part, Seou Choi of South Korea is the only one who didn't make the cut.
All five competition rounds (1 qualification, 2 individual competitions) could for the ranking of the "Neustadt 5", that Ryoyu Kobayashi is leading now with 144.1 points. The overall winner will get additional prize money of € 25 000.-.
Saturday's competition starts at 4 pm CET.
