Ryoyu Kobayashi wins ahead of five Norwegians

Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi was the winner of the second World Cup competition in Klingenthal (GER). In contrast to yesterday, the conditions were difficult on Sunday afternoon with continuous rain. Kobayashi took the win and was followed by, believe it or not, five Norwegians on the places two to six, an explanation for this result came on the spot.

It was a really unusual result that was displayed on the scoreboard after the end of Sunday's competition in Klingenthal. The Norwegian team secured the ranks two to six, the Germans, with the two favorites Karl Geiger and Markus Eisenbichler came in only 21st (Andreas Wellinger), 22nd (Karl Geiger) and 40th (Markus Eisenbichler). The best German was youngster Constantin Schmid in eighth.

The inrun track in the Vogtland-Arena was slower than usual due to the steady rain, not extremely hard and fast as it normally is.
"It was definitely an advantage for us that we trained in similar conditions very often on the Midtstubakken in Oslo in recent months, we know how to handle these kind of conditions. In addition, we have to experts for slow inrun speeds on our team with Robert Johansson and Daniel Andre Tande", Johann Andre Forfang (sixth today) explained the secret of the Norwegian success.

Today's winner Ryoyu Kobayashi also new how to deal with these special circumstances: "I often trained in such conditions and in the past I also achieved good results in difficult conditions like today", said Kobayashi.

For Daniel Andre Tande this second place was his comeback among the world's best after his terrible crash in Planica in March. "It's hard to explain what this result means to me, it's an amazing feeling. Moments like these are the reason why I'm still competing in this sport. The joy of performing well is the best thing. Just competing again already at the beginning of the season was enough for me, the feeling I have now after being on the podium again so soon is hard to explain."

The German team took today's defeat calmly and said that they will start analyzing the reasons right away.
Karl Geiger explained: "I can't really say much about what happened yet. The first round was really very difficult, something just didn't work out and afterwards it was very hectic. Now I have to watch the jumps on video and then I can draw conclusions. I don't know yet what the speed was so low in the first round, it the second round we already did a lot better again."

Andreas Wellinger summed it up: "My first jump was not good at the take-off, I pulled with the arms too much, that was better in the second round. It was not easy today. I think we started six gates higher than yesterday but had a similar spped. The track was challenging, but it was the same for everyone. The second jump was positive for me again."
The best of the Austrians was Philipp Aschenwald in tenth, Manuel Fettner was 11th, yesterday's winner Stefan Kraft was 26th.

Karl Geiger still leads the overall World Cup with 414 points, followed by Ryoyu Kobayashi (316 points) and Stefan Kraft (311 points).

The World Cup continues next weekend with two competitions in Engelberg (SUI).

Full results