COC-M: Victory for Clemens Aigner
Jan 18, 2019·Ski Jumping
The next stop of the Continental Cup this season is Sapporo (JPN), where three competitions will be held on the Okurayama-hill this weekend. On day 1 in Japan, Austria's Clemens Aigner claimed his second win this winter.
The 25-year-old Tyrolean, who also won in Bischofshofen last weekend, posted jumps of 132.5 m and 127.5 m on the HS 127 large hill and stood on top of the podium in the Continental Cup for the eleventh time with his total of 229.5 points. "Of course, I'm very satisfied, it was not easy to jump today, because it was a bit windy. I'm very happy about this win", said Clemens Aigner.
Andreas Wank of Germany, with 127.5 m seventh after the first round, showed the best performance in the second round with 134 m and moved up to second overall with 215.0 points. This was by far the best result this season for the team Olympic champion of 2014. "I'm very satisfied. Sapporo and me, we know each other for a long time and I like this hill. It was fun today", said Andreas Wank.
The third place on Friday afternoon in Sapporo went to Slovenia's Nejc Dezman, who jumped on 128.5 m and 134.5 m and secured his spot on the podium with 208.8 points. "I'm quite happy about my performance today. I have been training hard over the past three weeks and this work paid off today. I still made some small mistakes, but I hope I can make similar jumps in the next two competitions."
Robin Pedersen of Norway, second after the first round behind Clemens Aigner, lost some ground in the final and came in fourth. The fifth place went to Austria's Thomas Hofer, followed by Martin Hamann of Germany and Slovenia's Rok Justin.
Behind Norwegian Andreas Granerud Buskum, Taku Takeuchi was the best of the hosting team with his ninth place. The longest jumps of the day were shown by the two Slovenes Bor Pavlovcic and Ziga Jelar with 141 m. But because both only had one really good jump today, they finished only tenth and eleventh.
In the overall ranking of the COC, Marius Lindvik remains in the lead with 365 points. Robin Pedersen (325 points) and Clemens Aigner (313 points) follow in second and third.
The next competition in Sapporo starts on Saturday at 2 am CET.
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