Team Japan sweeps the podium

Last winter's highflyer is performing as if there was no break between the season final in Planica (SLO) and today's competition in Hakuba (JPN). 22-year-old Ryoyu Kobayashi of the Tsuchiya Home Ski Team won the first FIS Grand Prix competition in Hakuba with jumps of 129 m and 132.5 m (294.9 points) ahead of his teammates Yukiya Sato (282.1 points) and Keiichi Sato (265.1 points).

It was competition for Kobayashi this summer, and therefore also the first competition after his triumphal 2018/19 winter season. And he could follow up exactly were he left off in Planica. The younger one of the Kobayashi brothers jumped in a league of his own and easily took home the win, even though he had to waid for a long time for his second jump due to the changing wind conditions. "t's been a while since my last Grand Prix competition and I was really nervous. It's a home competition, so I wanted to show the audience two long jumps. I had to wait a long time before my second jump, that was difficult, because I was sweating a lot", told the winner.

This was already the third win in a row for Ryoyu Kobayashi on the Olympic hill in Hakuba, after he could already win both competitions at this venue last summer.

Yukiya Sato could confirm the great shape he has already shown with the third place a week ago in Zakopane (POL) and achieved his second podium finish in a row today. "I'm really satisfied with today's result. Of course I wanted to beat Ryoyu, but this is obviously very difficult and so I'm happy about the second place. In both of my jumps I had better conditions than other jumpers, so I think that I was lucky today. So far I never had good results in Japan, so finishing second in front of the home crowd makes me happy and I'm also relieved", said Yukiya Sato.

Keiichi Sato stood on the podium for the first time today. The up-and-comer on the team of head coach Hideharu Miyahira posted strong jumps and benefited from the disqualification of Russia's Evgeniy Klimov. Klimov was disqualified after the competition because his suit did not meet the rules. "t's bitter-sweet to be on the podium because of a disqualification of another athlete, however, I'm happy about the result. I'm satisfied with my performance, I had my best two jumps in the competition. It's great that I achieved my first podium here in Japan", explained Keiichi Sato, who is not related to Yukiya Sato.

Poland's Pawel Wasek achieved a top result and came in on a career-best fourth place. The 20-year-old presented himself strong already last weekend, when he could win a Continental Cup in Frenstat (CZE).

The outstanding team result of the Japanese was completed by Daiki Ito, Naoki Nakamura, Junshiro Kobayashi and Yuken Iwasa in fith, sixth, eighth and eleventh. The performances of Team Japan are absolutely impressive and other teams will probably already worry about how they will be able to keep up with the Japanese in the upcoming World Cup season.

Simon Ammann was jumping strong and once again really enjoyed himself in Japan. The seventh place was the reward for his good performance, especially in the final round. Best Norwegian was Joakim Aune on the good ninth place. Pius Paschke was the best German in 13th, followed by the best Finn, Antti Aalto.

Kevin Bickner also did really well today. The US American did not have the best conditions in the second round, otherwise, an even better result than the 16th place would have been possible for him. It did not go that well for the team of Austria, as all three athletes failed to make the cut for the final round.

The second competition in Hakuba starts on Saturday at 11:30 am CET (6:30 pm LOC).

Full results