The stars of the World Cup season took over this weekend, with big victories in Germany.
Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi, who came out of nowhere to be the likely season winner, won his 11th competition of the 2018-19 World Cup – out of 22 held – in the Sunday jumping at Willingen (GER).
Kobayashi had the longest jump on Sunday at 146.0 m in the first round and then he tied with Richard Freitag (GER) for the best of the second round at 144.0 m. In both cases, his form and technique earned him the top scores for both jumps and he won easily, 274.4-252.8 over Markus Eisenbichler (GER).
On Saturday, Germany’s Karl Geiger collected his second individual win of his career, out-scoring Poland’s Kamil Stoch, 311.1-307.1, with Kobayashi third. Geiger had won previously this season in Engelberg (SUI), back in December.
These competitions were part of the Willingen 5 tournament, in which all five jumps – qualifying and both jumps on both days – counted. Koyabashi won this title too, scoring 737.5 points, ahead of Poland’s Piotr Zyla (708.6) and Geiger (708.0).
With six World Cup events to go, Kobayashi now has a 1,620-1,145-1,107 lead over Stoch and Stefan Kraft (AUT).
In Obertsdorf, Lundby won her ninth event this season, out of 17 held so far. She has 14 medals in the 17 events and won a tight battle with Katharina Althaus (GER) on Saturday, 270.5-270.1.
She won easily on Sunday, compiling 292.4 points to 283.0 for Germany’s Juliane Seyfarth.
With seven events left, Lundby – the reigning World Cup champ – has a 1,368-1,073-916 lead over Althaus and Japan’s Sara Takanashi. Summaries:
FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
Willingen (GER) ~ 15-17 February 2019
(Full results here)
Men’s 145 m hill I: 1. Karl Geiger (GER), 311.1; 2. Kamil Stoch (POL), 307.1; 3. Ryoyu Kobayashi (JPN), 304.7; 4. Piotr Zyla (POL), 297.9; 5. Dawid Kubacki (POL), 297.0.
Men’s 145 m hill II: 1. Kobayashi (JPN), 274.4; 2. Markus Eisenbichler (GER), 252.8; 3. Zyla (POL), 250.0; 4. Richard Freitag (GER), 249.6; 5. Kubacki (POL), 249.3.
Willingen 5 Standings: 1. Kobayashi (JPN), 737.5; 2. Zyla (POL), 708.6; 3. Geiger (GER), 708.0; 4. Stoch (POL), 697.4; 5. Kubacki (POL), 685.7.
Team 145 m hill: 1. Poland (Zyla, Wolny, Kubacki, Stoch), 979.4; 2. Germany, 900.2; 3. Slovenia, 874.0; 4. Norway, 873.2; 5. Japan, 869.4.
FIS Ski Jumping World Cup
Obertsdorf (GER) ~ 16-17 February 2019
(Full results here)
Women’s 137 m hill I: 1. Maren Lundby (NOR), 270.5; 2. Katharina Althaus (GER), 270.1; 3. Ursa Bogataj (SLO), 244.1; 4. Sara Takanashi (JPN), 242.0; 5. Chiara Hoelzel (AUT), 236.6.
Women’s 137 m hill II: 1. Lundby (NOR), 292.4; 2. Juliane Seyfarth (GER), 283.0; 3. Takanashi (JPN), 250.3; 4. Althaus (GER), 249.7; 5. Yuki Ito (JPN), 247.3.
