Kobayashi wins in Lahti after one round
Mar 26, 2023·Ski Jumping
Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi won the Ski Jumping World Cup in Lahti (FIN) on Sunday. Kobayashi prevailed in only one - almost two hours lasting - round ahead of Stefan Kraft from Austria and Karl Geiger from Germany.
For Kobayashi it was the 30th World Cup victory overall, the third (after 2 x Sapporo) this winter. Kobayashi had already won in Lahti in 2022. "That was a difficult competition today, but it was also fun. Now I'm looking forward to the next weekend in Planica, I hope that I'll manage really long flights to 250 meters there," explained winner Kobayashi.
Constant wind interruptions and waiting periods due to too strong wind had extended the first round from a planned 50 minutes to a duration of almost two hours. Because the prospects were not better for a possible second round, the jury decided to end the competition after the first round. So the first round was taken as the final result.
"This is Lahti" Daniel Andre Tande from Norway (ranked 24th today) summarized the competition on the HS 130 meter hill of Lahti in three words.
"That can always happen here, the conditions here are just difficult sometimes. But we are still happy that we could do this competition here today, and if you look at the podium with Ryoyu, Stefan and Karl, there are three worthy people standing there. Of course, nothing works on such a day without the necessary bit of luck, but the athlete must also do his part in good conditions, and the three of them did that excellently today."
With Daniel Tschofenig, who had already won the qualification before the competition, in fourth place and Michael Hayböck in sixth place, the Austrians managed a strong team result. Anze Lanisek (SLO) finished fifth.
Karl Geiger had only just survived the qualification in 49th place and then caused jubilation in the German team with third place.
Timi Zajc and Lovro Kos grades on the 7th and 8th places for three top-10 places of the Slovenians, also a strong team result.
For the ski jumpers the season finale in Planica (SLO) is still on the program next weekend. With a total of three ski flying events (2 x individual, 1 x team) the season traditionally comes to an end on the ski flying hill (HS 240 meters) in Planica.
The overall World Cup has already been won by Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud. Granerud leads uncatchable before the Austrian Stefan Kraft and the Pole Dawid Kubacki who had ended the season early because of an illness of his wife.
The fight for the Ski Flying World Cup will be decided in Planica, also here Granerud is leading (380 points), Stefan Kraft has 320 points on second place and can still challenge Granerud for the small crystal globe.
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