Sato, Tochimoto and Klimov ahead in training

The FIS Grand Prix weekend in Hakuba started with the official training already on Thursday. Three training rounds were held on the Olympic hill under difficult wind conditions. Due to the fact that there are only 41 competitors, no qualification was necessary.

Already in the first round of the day, the hosts could show some strong performances. Yukiya Sato had the best jump with 128.5 m. Daniel Huber of Austria jumped on 130 m, but the wind conditions were a bit better for him. Behind Russia's Evgeniy Klimov (128.5 m), three more athletes of Japan, Shohei Tochimoto (126.5 m), Junshiro Kobayashi (126 m) and Ryoyu Kobayashi (115.5 m) came in on the places four to six.

Shohei Tochimoto then posted the longest jump of the day in the second round with 134.5 m. His teammate Ryoyu Kobayashi came closest to him with 127 m. He was followed by Daniel Huber (122 m), Evgeniy Klimov (127 m) and Canada's Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes (125.5 m), who was also among the best in the first round with an eighth place.

Evgeniy Klimov, currently third in the overall ranking of the FIS Grand Prix behind the two Poles Kamil Stoch and Piotr Zyla, was the best in the third and final training round on Thursday with 132.5 m. Daniel Huber and Junshiro Kobayashi also had very good jumps again with 128 m and 129 m. The fourth place went to Slovenia's Tomaz Naglic. Kevin Bickner of the USA could constantly improve his performance on day one in Hakuba and, after he was eleventh and seventh in the first two rounds, he ended the day with a fifth place in the final round.

The first of two competitions in Hakuba starts on Friday at 6:30 pm local time (11:30 am CET).

But the weather might cause some problems for this event. A typhoon is expected tonight that should pass Hakuba in the south, but the wind is still expected to be relatively strong during the day. According to the weather forecast, the wind shall calm down in the evening and so it should be possible to carry out the competition as planned.