Klingenthal: Ryoyu Kobayashi back on the winning track
Dec 15, 2019·Ski Jumping
Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi returned to the top of the World Cup with a win in Klingenthal. Kobayashi won the exciting competition on Sunday ahead of Austria's Stefan Kraft and Marius Lindvik of Norway.
"I was able to make two very good jumps and of course I'm very happy about the win today. But I don't think about the result at all, I just focus on showing good jumps. Of course, I would love to win the 4-Hills-Tournament again this year, but as I said, I only focus on my jumps, not on results", said Kobayashi, who is now leading the overall World Cup with 290 points ahead of Austrian Stefan Kraft (276 points). Norway's Daniel Andre Tande was 18th today and is now third in the overall ranking with 273 points.
Kobayashi celebrated his 14th World Cup win, he claimed the other 13 last winter, the most recent one at the World Cup final in Planica (SLO).
Stefan Kraft, who won in Nizhny Tagil last weekend, confirmed his top shape with the second place: "Second yesterday, second today, I'm absolutely satisfied with these results. Ryoyu Kobayashi was extremely strong, he showed what he is capable of today and it was a well-deserved win", said Kraft and added: "The summer was difficult for us, now the spirit within our team is really good and that's important. We are having a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to Engelberg, I like this hill and I could start jumping there right away."
For 21-year-old Marius Lindvik, today's third place was the first World Cup podium of his career: "Finally I made it on the podium, my jumps were really good today. We were training very well during the summer and that is paying off now. Everyone on our team is strong enough to win", he told.
Besides the joy about the success of Lindvik, the Norwegians also had to deal with the serious crash of Thomas Aasen Markeng. Markeng fell after the landing in the second round, remained lying in the outrun for minutes until he was carried out. Markeng felt pain in his left knee and was taken to the hospital for an x-ray examination. The 19-year-old will return home to Oslo tomorrow and undergo further medical checks there.
Behind Philipp Aschenwald, Karl Geiger was the best German in fifth, Markus Eisenbichler was 15th, Stephan Leyhe 17th, and Pius Paschke 19th. Japan's Yukiya Sato confirmed his win from Nizhny Tagil with the sixth place today. Peter Prevc (8th) and Gregor Schlierenzauer (12th) were once again close to the best. It's only a matter of time until they will be on the World Cup podium again.
The World Cup continues next weekend with two individual competitions in Engelberg (SUI) before the 4-Hills-Tournament starts with the qualification in Oberstdorf on December 28th.
