Ryoyu Kobayashi on top again in Oberstdorf
Dec 29, 2019·Ski Jumping
Defending champion Ryoyu Kobayashi won the first competition of the 68th 4-Hills-Tournament in an outstanding manner. The 23-year-old came in ahead of Germany's Karl Geiger and Dawid Kubacki of Poland on Sunday evening.
The 25 500 enthusiastic fans in the sold-out Audi-Arena in Oberstdorf saw a great opener of the 68th 4-Hills-Tournament in perfect conditions that ended with Ryoyu Kobayashi's fifth win in a row of a 4-Hills-Tournament competition. It was the 16th World Cup win for the 23-year-old Japanese. "I want to thank everyone who supports me and cheered me on here, this really gives me strength. The second jump was good, but I must admit that I was a bit defensive, I didn't take that much risk in the second round", Kobayashi, who proved his outstanding shape in both rounds today, summed up the event.
With the second place today, local hero Karl Geiger, who lives just a meters away from the arena in Oberstdorf, achieved the best result of his career on his home hill. It was a fantastic competition for Geiger, who was overwhelmed by this success: "My two jumps were really good, I'm extremely happy about this podium finish. The atmosphere is extremely motivating, the feeling when you are up at the start is special. I was a lot of fun today, I've never jumped that well here", he said after celebrating his result together with his home crowd.
Third-placed Dawid Kubacki explained: "I'm really satisfied with my jumps today. I've made some small changes compared to yesterday and I'm happy that I was able to improve my jumps overnight. I'm happy that I was on the podium in such a high-level competition."
The fourth place went to Austria's Stefan Kraft, who scored 291.2 points and is 13.9 points behind today's winner Kobayashi in the overall ranking of the 4-Hills-Tournament after the first competition. With this result, Kraft definitely remains one of the top contenders for the overall title.
Piotr Zyla (POL) and Philipp Aschenwald of Austria finished fifth and sixth, Yukiya Sato (JPN) was seventh.
A remarkable result was the eighth place of Norway's Robert Johansson, who was competing despite strong back pain. The Germans showed a strong team performance today with Markus Eisenbichler, Pius Paschke and Stephan Leyhe in 11th, 12th and 13th.
The Top 4 today will probably also be the ones fighting for the overall title of this 4-Hills-Tournament. Poland's Piotr Zyla is already about ten points behind fourth-placed Stefan Kraft. Considering the enormous strength of the Top 4 this gap will be difficult to close.
The 4-Hills-Tournament continues with the training (11:45 am CET) and the qualification (2 pm CET) on Tuesday in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The competition follows on Wednesday at 2 pm CET.
Here's what the athletes had to say after the competition in Oberstdorf:
Peter Prevc: I'm not satisfied with my result and my performance. I'm capable of showing much better and longer jumps, especially the one in the first round was bad. In the second round, I jumped far and that's what I want to do in the next competitions.
Stephan Leyhe: Technically my first jump was okay, but I'm not good enough yet that I can compensate such a low gate and the tailwind. In the second round, I was more relaxed again. I know I have it in me, but it doesn't want to come out every day. Now the first event of the 4-Hills is over and I'm pretty satisfied.
Marius Lindvik: All in all I'm happy with my jumps. I just have to continue showing good jumps in the competitions during this 4-Hills-Tournament. I like the hill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, it's been a few years since I jumped there, but the last time I did it felt good.
Constantin Schmid: I'm very satisfied with my jumps, I did what I wanted to do. The result could have been a bit better, but it was my best result in a 4-Hills event so I'm satisfied with that.
Simon Ammann: It was a good day for me, even if the second jump was not that good. But the first one was very, very, important. I'm optimistic now that I can fight my way back towards the top step by step because it went well at the take-off. This was very positive. The atmosphere is incredible. This arena is the best place to win.
Stefan Kraft: The jumps were okay, the result is okay. I gave away the podium with the bad landing today and that hurts a bit. The 4-Hills-Tournament has just started, the jumps are good and I'm happy that I had such a good start. Now I'll just have to train the telemark-landing.
Pius Paschke: The atmosphere was great and we tried to give our all. With Karl one of our team made it to second place, that's perfect. The rest of the team also did a good job and so the spirit is good.
Alexander Stoeckl (Coach NOR): I'm really very satisfied, especially with the first round. In training and in the qualification yesterday we were not among the best, the athletes then made their best jumps in the first round. In the second round, they didn't do that well, Marius Lindvik also had a bit difficult conditions. All in all, I'm satisfied, we are not that far behind the podium.
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