Qualification in Sapporo: Kobayashi with top start at home
Jan 31, 2020·Ski Jumping
Ryoyu Kobayashi won the first qualification of the Ski Jumping World Cup in Sapporo on Friday evening (local time). Kobayashi won on the HS 137 meter Okurayama hill in Sapporo ahead of Austrian Stefan Kraft and Karl Geiger.
Local hero Ryoyu Kobayashi secured the day's victory with his jump of 132 meters (128.9 points) just 0.4 points ahead of Stefan Kraft, who landed after 132.5 meters. After problems in training, overall World Cup leader Karl Geiger also did really well in the qualification: 124.5 meters and 115.5 points meant the third place in the qualification for the Oberstdorf-native. "That was a really good jump, everything worked out fine," Geiger was happy after his successful attempt in the qualification.
In the qualification, which took place in good conditions, Peter Prevc was the best Slovenian in fourth, Dawid Kubacki presented himself strong as usual, today the 4-Hills winner landed in 5th place. With Timi Zajc (7th) and Domen Prevc (9th) two more Slovenians finished in the Top 10.
A strong 20th place went to Estonian Artti Aigro. A similar strong performance in tomorrow's competition would mean important World Cup points for the Estonian. So far, Aigro has once made the Top 30 (Ruka, Nov. 2018).
Roman Koudelka finished 10th, tied with Stephan Leyhe, and was able to prove his rising form. Markus Eisenbichler was 12th, behind Koudelka and Leyhe. Directly behind him, the best Norwegian, Robert Johansson, finished 13th, Pius Paschke and Constantin Schmid also qualified without problems in 25th and 26th place in a field of 59 athletes.
Moment of shock through Deschwanden
With a crash, the Swiss Gregor Deschwanden caused a short moment of shock. However, Deschwanden was able to give the all-clear shortly after the fall, and the 29-year-old also managed to qualify for the competition despite. "I didn't really understand why I crashed, we'll take a look at it tonight and analyze it in detail," said Gregor Deschwanden.
The day before, Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer had already crashed in training. The record World Cup winner recovered well today and qualified for the competition on Saturday easily in 28th.
It will be close for Noriaki Kasai
Veteran and crowd favorite Noriaki Kasai of Japan had no chance to make the cut in the qualification. Kasai finished 55th and last (3 starters were disqualified). The veteran will slowly but surely have to realize that the strong young athletes in Hideharu Miyahira's team leave no spot open for him. The young Japanese athletes are too strong for Kasai to earn his place on the team. We will have to wait and see if Kasai will get a chance to do better in the qualification for the second competition on Sunday.
The first competition in Sapporo begins at 8:30 am (CET).
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