Ryoyu Kobayashi wins after one round in Willingen

After the women earlier today, also the men had to deal with difficult conditions on the Muehlenkopfhill in Willingen on Saturday evening. Changing, gusty wins and steady rain made the competition a challenging test of patience for the athletes and the jury. In the end, the decision was the same as for the women's event, it was over after only one round and the result of the first round became official. Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi was the winner, ahead of the two Norwegians Halvor Egner Granerud and Marius Lindvik.

"Of course, I'm happy about my win. I was also lucky with the conditions today, but that's what you need to finish on top on days like today. It was really difficult", said Ryouy Kobayashi, who posted the longest jump of the day of 146 m and claimed his 26th World Cup win, the seventh this season.

The Norwegians once again proved their outstanding skills in difficult, especially rainy conditions. Halvor Egner Granerud explained after the competition: "It was a bit windy today here in Willingen, but for me, it was a good competition. I did one of my better jumps this winter and I think it's possible for me to win tomorrow, I'm happy with the jumps I'm showing at the moment."
"The weather is not a problem, it's Norwegian weather", third-ranked Marius Lindvik said smiling.

For the German team, it was also a good competition with the places four and six four Severin Freund and Stephan Leyhe. Constantin Schmid and Andreas Wellinger also did well in 11th and 12th, the two best Germans this winter, Karl Geiger (20th) and Markus Eisenbichler (30th) could not live up to the expectations.

With the 20th place today, Karl Geiger also lost his lead in the overall World Cup. Ryoyu Kobayashi is now 27 points ahead of Geiger. (1136 points and 1109 points), Halvor Egner Granerud is third with 865 points.

The second competition in Willingen will start on Sunday at 3:15 pm CET.

Full results