4-Hills: Kobayashi wins opener in Oberstdorf

Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi won the opening event of the 70th 4-Hills-Tournament on Wednesday evening in Oberstdorf. In continuous rain, Kobayashi finished ahead of the two Norwegians Halvor Egner Granerud and Robert Johansson. Karl Geiger came in fifth, 6.1 points behind the winner.

The competition in Oberstdorf was a copy of the World Cup in Klingenthal on December 12th. Once again it was raining heavily, once again Ryoyu Kobayashi took the win, and once again the Norwegians demonstrated their strength in the rain and in difficult conditions.

"I don't feel any pressure regarding the next competitions or the overall ranking of the 4-Hills-Tournament", said Kobayashi, who showed an outstanding performance today, especially in the final round. After he was fifth in the first round, he secured his win with the longest jump of the day of 141 m in the second round.

Granerud, Johannson on the podium, and Marius Lindvik in fourth gave the Norwegian team lots of reasons to celebrate. "I'm probably the surprise of the day, but it went well for me the entire winter. But before today, I was not able to show such performances n the competitions. Hopefully, this competition will also help me to be among the best in the upcoming events", said Robert Johansson, who shaved off his famous mustache a few days ago.

But it was also a good day for the Germans, even though Karl Geiger missed the podium, he is only 6.1 points behind Kobayashi and with Markus Eisenbichler (7th) and Stephan Leyhe (9th), two other members of the team finished in the Top 10.
"It's a good result. The conditions were okay, my jump could have been better, but it was okay. I felt the pressure before the competition, even though I didn't want to, but considering all of this it was a good competition", explained Karl Geiger, who is in a good starting position now for the upcoming three competitions.

Once again the Swiss team showed a strong performance today with the places 10 (Deschwanden), 13 (Ammann), and 14 (Peier). It was an especially good result for four-time Olympic champion Simon Ammann, who could finally qualify for the Olympic Games in Beijing.
A huge success also for Fatih Arda Ipcioglu, who could score the first-ever World Cup points for Turkey.

The 4-Hills-Tournament continues on Friday with the qualification in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Full results

Statements after the competition in Oberstdorf:

Severin Freund (GER): You always try to do everything correctly and that the equipment is okay, but still it's elite sports and you have to be close to the limit. It's a shame, because my performance was really good. I would have been in a good position, but there's nothing I can do about it now. The equipment controller is doing his job, and he's doing it well, that's how it's supposed to be. The decision is what it is.

Kamil Stoch (POL): I have no idea what happened today. I thought that everything would work out well today, but obviously, nothing worked the way I wanted. I'm more confused than disappointed because I don't know what goes wrong. It's a tough situation.

Johann Andre Forfang (NOR): It was a really disappointing day for me. In the first round I had really bad conditions, in my opinion with too little compensation and also my jumps were not the best. It was a tough day. Now I need to focus on what I did yesterday and try to build on that.

Fatih Arda Ipcioglu (TUR): It was a really good competition for Turkish Ski Jumping, I made history today because I scored the first-ever points for Turkey in the World Cup. We are paving the way for the next generation of Turkish jumpers. Now I want to focus on my performance and continue like that. My big goal is the Olympic Games, if I will be competing there I'll try my best also at the Olympics.

Karl Geiger (GER): At first I was a bit disappointed because the others were jumping really far. But it's okay, it was a good competition and I'm satisfied. In the second round I was happy when they moved down the gate because usually, it means that the wind conditions are good. My jump was good, but I could have jumped even better. The fifth place is a good result, I'm within striking distance.