Ryoyu Kobayashi wins on 2nd day of Ski Flying
Feb 02, 2019·Ski Jumping
Ryoyu Kobayashi won the second Ski Flying competition in Oberstdorf on Saturday. With jumps of 224 m and 234 m, Kobayashi scored 427.0 points and finished first. In a highly dramatic final round, Germany's Markus Eisenbichler came in second, only 0.5 points behind the winner. Austria's Stefan Kraft was third.
"I lost the decisive points in the first round", Eisenbichler was upset, but only for a split second. Then the joy about this great result in a breathtaking compeitions outweighed the disappointment. "This morning I was really tired, the five jumps yesterday were hard. But when I go to the hill again and see the hill I'm happy that I have to chance to jump here. Hats off to Ryoyu, he performed on a great level today", explained Markus Eisenbichler.
Eisenbichler put pressure on half-time leader Kobayashi with his second jump of 237.5 m and forced him to show an amazing jump as well.
Ryoyu Kobayashi came in only 0.5 points ahead of Eisenbichler and prevented the first World Cup win of the Bavarian. With his second place today, Eisenbichler took the lead in the Ski Flying World Cup with 140 points, Timi Zajc (129 points) and Ryoyu Kobayashi (118 points) are second and third.
It was the tenth World Cup win for Kobayashi, the Japanese took all of them this season. "I found the right feeling for Ski Flying today, yesterday I didn't have that. I don't know if it will continue like that tomorrow, but I will definitely enjoy Ski Flying again", said the 22-year-old. "Ski Flying is physically stressful, but you should not think too much, then it works", said Kobayashi, who extended his lead in the overall World Cup.
Stefan Kraft of Austria was third and proved his currently strong shape again. "The level is incredibly high right now. I'm happy and proud that I can be among the best. If you make just a small mistake you can fail to make the cut for the final round, we saw that with Daniel Huber today. It's exhausting, the five flights yesterday were hard, the three flights today were okay. Ryoyu Kobayashi had sensational flights today, he definitely deserved this win", said Kraft.
Like yesterday, Piotr Zyla finished fourth, Kamil Stoch was sixth. With Philipp Aschenwald in seventh and Michael Hayboeck in eleventh, the Austrians achieved a strong team result today. Best Norwegian was Robert Johansson in fifth, Johann Andre Forfang was eighth.
Ryoyu Kobayashi now leads the overall World Cup with 1351 points, followed by Stefan Kraft (881 points) and Kamil Stoch (829 points).
The third and final Ski Flying competition in Oberstdorf starts on Sunday at 4 pm CET.
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