Ryoyu Kobayashi wins qualification narrowly ahead of Geiger
Dec 10, 2021·Ski Jumping
Ryoyu Kobayashi had an impressive comeback after he was sidelined for 10 days. The Japanese won Friday's qualification in Klingenthal ahead of Karl Geiger and Kamil Stoch.
Kobayashi was in isolation in Finland for ten days after testing positive for Covid-19, now the 2018/19 overall World Cup champion picked up right where he left off in Ruka. "This was a good jump today, I'm satisfied. In the competition tomorrow I want to show good and very long jumps again", Kobayashi said after his victory in the qualification today.
Karl Geiger missed the win only by 0.5 points and is one of the top contenders for the competition tomorrow. Three-time Olympic champion Kamil Stoch was back among the best again after the mini-crisis of the Polish team. "I put a bit too much pressure on myself in the first competitions, today I was more relaxed and that worked really well", Stoch said after finishing third.
Killian Peier and Simon Ammann achieved top results for Switzerland in fourth and sixth today, in between them, Andreas Wellinger once again showed that his shape is getting better and better. Besides Geiger and Wellinger, Pius Paschke (7th), Stephan Leyhe (8th), and Markus Eisenbichler (13th) provided for a strong team result for Germany.
The first men's competition in Klingenthal starts on Saturday at 4 pm CET, the second one follows on Sunday, also at 4 pm CET.
)
