COC-M: 1-2 finish for Slovenia

In the final event of the Continental Cup weekend in Sapporo (JPN), Robert Kranjec and Nejc Dezman could secure a 1-2 finish for the Slovenian team on the Okurayama-hill.

For veteran Robert Kranjec, this was a weekend with some ups and downs. After his win on the normal hill on Friday and the 28th place on Saturday due to a disqualification in the final round, he stood on top of the podium again on Sunday. The 36-year-old won the third competition in Sapporo with 127.5 m and the longest jump of the day of 140 m and 236.7 points. "The weather conditions were nice, the competition was okay", the former Ski Flying World Champion said after his second win in three days.

Nejc Dezman was the best in the first round with 135.5 m, in the final he then landed at 133 m. This performance earned him the second place overall, only the tine margin of 0.1 points behind his teammate Robert Kranjec. "It was a good competition for me with two good jumps. Too bad I couldn't win just because of 0.1 points. I hope I can come back to Sapporo soon", said Nejc Dezman.

With jumps of 130 m and 135 m and a total of 230.6 points, Austria's Daniel Huber finished third. After the places three and one in the first two competitions in Japan, this was a very successful weekend for him with three podium finishes. "I'm very happy about finishing on the podium three times in a row. Today was another good competition, so I'm really satisfied with this weekend here in Japan", said Daniel Huber.

Tom Hilde of Norway moved up from tenth to fourth in the second round, Germany's David Siegel repeated his fifth place from the day before and came in right ahead of his teammate Andreas Wank.

The seventh place went to Norwegian Joachim Hauer, Evgeniy Klimov, who was among the very best in second on Saturday, finished eighth this time. Local hero Naoki Nakamura, who was second behind Nejc Dezman after the first round and had good chances on a podium result, lost some ground with his 117.5 m jump in the second round and ended up ninth. Moritz Baer was tenth and the third German athlete in the Top 10 of the day.

With his second place today, Nejc Dezman now took the lead in the overall ranking. The Slovene (602 points) leads ahead of Marius Lindvik (556 points) and David Siegel (550 points).

The ski jumpers now return to Europe, where the next two competitions will be held in Planica (SLO) next weekend (February 3rd and 4th).