Ryoyu Kobayashi is back on top

Ryoyu Kobayashi claimed his first Ski Jumping World Cup win after a long drought. The Japanese took his first win since December 29, 2019, when he won the 4-Hills opener in Oberstdorf, on Saturday in Zakopane (POL). Poland's Andrzej Stekala finished second, Marius Lindvik of Norway was third.

It was the 17th World Cup win for Ryoyu Kobayashi, the 24-year-old now tied with Noriaki Kasai. No male Japanese ski jumper has won more World Cups than these two. In heavy snowfall, Kobayashi came in just the tiny margin of 0.3 points ahead of Poland's Stekala. "I'm very happy that I could win today. The conditions were good despite the snowfall because there was less wind than in the last competitions. When I was jumping everything was okay. I hope that it will go that well for me again tomorrow", Kobayashi said after the competition.

For Andrzej Stekala, today's second place was his first-ever World Cup podium. "I'm really satisfied with my jumps today and I'm very happy to be on the podium in my hometown. The snowfall in the final round was a little bit of a problem but we had some help from the hill crew. Tomorrow I'll try to jump well again and then we'll see", he told.

Third-placed Marius Lindvik won a World Cup on the very same hill just four weeks ago: "I like the hill here and it fits my jumping very well. The conditions weren't that difficult despite the snowfall because they did a good job in getting it out of the inrun track. Hopefully, I can make two good jumps again tomorrow, maybe similar to my second jump today."

Anze Lanisek and Bor Pavlovcic of Slovenia came in fourth and fifth and even more is possible for them in this weekend's second competition on Sunday. Their shape of the Slovenes is getting better and better.

World Cup leader Halvor Egner Granerud finished seventh, behind his teammate Daniel Andre Tande, but he was still able to further extend his overall lead since his main opponents came in behind him today. Granerud is close to securing to overall World Cup title.

Germany's Markus Eisenbichler and Pius Paschke were 14th and 15th. The shape of the German team just about a bit more than a week before the start of the World Championships in Oberstdorf (GER) is not good. Karl Geiger was 23rd,  Severin Freund 30th.
Best Austrian was Stefan Kraft in tenth, Gregor Deschwanden and Simon Ammann of Switzerland finished 24th and 26th.

The second competition in Zakopane starts on Sunday at 4:10 pm CET.

Results