1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
Israel and the crisis in the Middle EastGerman coalition collapseUS election
Sports

Kobayashi wins in Garmisch to extend Four Hills Tour lead

January 1, 2019

Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi has won the second event of the Four Hills Tour to extend his slim overall lead. Despite longer jumps, Germany's Markus Eisenbichler came in second on the day and remains second overall.

https://p.dw.com/p/3ArZo
Ryoyu Kobayashi
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Warmuth

Ryoyu Kobayashi made it two out of two in ski-jumping's Four Hills Tour, winning in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on New Year's Day. Kobayashi soared to his sixth victory of the World Cup season with 266.6 points from his jumps of 136.5 and 133 meters.

Germany's Markus Eisenbichler came up short with 264.7 points despite completing jumps of 138 and 135 meters. Kobayashi scored slightly more points based on the more difficult wind conditions when he jumped. Poland's Dawid Kubacki, who finished third on the day, trails Kobayashi by 22.9 points overall.

Tuesday's results mean that Kobayashi holds a lead of just 2.3 points over Eisenbichler in the overall Four Hills standings as the ski jumpers move on to the third leg, Innsbruck, Austria on Friday. The 22-year-old Kobayashi is looking to become the first Japanese Four Hills overall Tour champion since Kazuyoshi Funaki won it in 1997-1998.

Former Four Hills winner Stefan Kraft of Austria lost any chance of winning the Tour after following up on a third-place finish in the first event, in Oberstdorf, by finishing in a second-to-last 49th place on Tuesday. Title holder Kamil Stoch of Poland is sixth overall, 32.1 points off the pace set by Kobayashi.

pfd/ (dpa, SID)