COC-M: Keiichi Sato and Naoki Nakamura secure 1-2 finish for Japan
Jul 14, 2019·Ski Jumping
Keiichi Sato and Naoki Nakamura claimed a 1-2 finish for the Japanese team in the final event of the Continental Cup weekend in Schuchinsk (KAZ).
Keiichi Sato, who missed the podium by just a bit more than one point in fourth on Saturday, made it to the top today. The 21-year-old Sapporo-native took his first win with 136.5 m and 137.5 m and 275.1 points. "This was the first time I stood on the podium in a COC and that as the winner. I'm really very happy about it", the Japanese said in a first statement.
Sato's teammate Naoki Nakamura jumped on 131.5 m and 133.5 m and was able to repeat his second place from the first competition on the HS 140 on Saturday with 267.5 points.
The most surprising performance of the day was shown by South Korean Heung-Chul Choi. After the 37-year-old veteran achieved his best result since 2009 yesterday with the eighth place, he did even better today. With 126.5 m and 139.5 m and 262.5 points he came in third, his strongest result since January 2005.
"This is not my first podium in the COC, but the last one was 14 years ago. I like this new venue, there were some problems with the wind, but the hills are big and beautiful. Tomorrow I plan to go to Europe for training and continue to compete in summer events", Heung-Chul Choi said after a successful weekend.
Luca Roth of Germany finished fourth, closely followed by Shohei Tochimoto, who completed the outstanding team result of the Japanese. The places six and seven went to the two Norwegians Sander Vossan Eriksen, for whom this is the best result of his career so far, and Sondre Ringen.
After his three wins in a row in Schuchinsk this week (2 x FIS Cup, 1 x COC), Austria's Maximilian Lienher came in eighth in this competition. Lienher's teammate Ulrich Wohlgenannt was ninth, the tenth place went to Vitaliy Kalinichenko of Ukraine.
Their strong performances this weekend earned Keiichi Sato (230 points) and Naoki Nakamura (225 points) the two top spots in the overall ranking of the Continental Cup. Russia's Evgeniy Klimov is now third with 200 points.
The next two COC competitions will be held on August 10th and 11th in Wisla (POL).
