COC: Andreas Wank wins in Sapporo

The long weekend of the Ski Jumping Continental Cup in Sapporo with a total of three competitions ended on Sunday with the second event on the large hill and a win of Germany's Andreas Wank.

The 28-year-old from die ski club in Hinterzarten was the best in both rounds with his 131.5 m and 128 m and with 244.8 points he secured the first win for Germany in this COC season. For Andreas Wank, who can be very satisfied with this weekend after finishing second, fourth and first, this was the fourth win of this career in the Continental Cup, the first in almost two years. "I had two good jumps in a difficult competition and could finally win in the COC again. I'm looking forward to jumping here in Sapporo again next months", said Andreas Wank.

Behind the German team Olympic champion from 2014, the Slovenes once again convinced with a strong performance. Nejc Dezman showed jumps of 128 m and 127.5 m and achieved his first podium result of the season in second with 232.5 points. Of course he was more than satisfied with his result: "Finally I had two good jumps. I was also able to stay focused when I had to wait a long time in the first round. Now I can go home with a smile."

For his teammate Miran Zupancic it was a weekend with ups and downs: He won on Friday, on Saturday he was disqualified in the second round and now it ended on a high note with the third place. The 27-year-old jumped on 131.5 m and 123.5 m and scored 222.9 points. "I can actually jump better, but I'm satisfied with the result. Wank and Dezman were just better today", said Zupancic.

Norway's Sigurd Nymoen Soeberg, eleventh after the first round, showed a very good second jump of 126.5 m and came in fourth, only 0.3 points behind Zupancic. It went the other way around for Austrian Florian Altenburger. He was second behind Andreas Wank after the first round, but his second jump of 119.5 m was only enough to finish fifth.

Anze Lanisek's streak of podium results ended today. After four Top 3 finishes in a row, the Slovene came in sixth on Sunday and was third-best of the strong Slovenian team of head coach Igor Medved. The Austrians can be satisfied with their team result as well. Besides Altenburger, also the winner of Saturday's competition, Clemens Aigner (7th), Elias Tollinger (9th) and Stefan Huber (10th) were in the Top 10.

With Klemens Muranka in eighth, Poland was also represented among the best ten, with Naoki Nakamura in eleventh, the hosts closely missed this goal.

Miran Zupancic could further extend his lead in the overall ranking with his top result in this competition. With 484 points the Slovene is now leading ahead of the Austrians Florian Altenburger (414 points) and Elias Tollinger (368 points).

The Continental Cup will now return to Europe, where the next two competitions will be held in Bischofshofen (AUT) on January 28th and 29th.