Prevc takes another two victories in Sapporo

Domen Prevc continued his impressive form after the Four Hills Tournament and dominated both individual competitions on the Okurayama hill in Sapporo. In Friday’s qualification, Ryoyu Kobayashi finished on top, securing the qualification win ahead of the Slovenian. However, in the competition on Saturday, Prevc proved to be unstoppable. With a jump of 132 meters in the first round, he took the lead and extended his advantage in the final round with an outstanding jump to 141 meters. He claimed victory with a clear margin of 22 points.

Behind Prevc, Naoki Nakamura finished in a somewhat surprising second place with jumps of 134 and 132.5 meters. It marked only the second World Cup podium of his career. Ren Nikaido completed the podium in third place. The winner of tis year’s competition at Bergisel reached distances of 130 and 129.5 meters in the two rounds. Qualification winner Ryoyu Kobayashi finished fifth, just behind Austria’s Jan Hoerl, who managed to place himself between the three Japanese athletes in the final standings. Overall, the strong results of the Japanese team sparked great enthusiasm among the home crowd.

Additionally the Austrian team, represented by Stephan Embacher, Manuel Fettner, Stefan Kraft and Daniel Tschofenig, finished in positions six through nine, securing a total of five top ten results.
The top ten were completed by Norway’s Marius Lindvik.

See the official results of the individual competition on Saturday

The second individual competition on Sunday brought no change at the top. This time, Prevc already claimed victory in qualification and seamlessly continued his performance in the competition, which started only half an hour later. With jumps of 137.5 and 136.5 meters, he secured his tenth victory of the season and underlined his exceptional form in the World Cup.

Behind him, Ryoyu Kobayashi and Daniel Tschofenig battled closely for the remaining podium places, with the Japanese athlete coming out on top. Jumps of 136.5 and 138.5 meters were enough to secure him the second place, while Tschofenig finished third.

Just behind Tschofenig, his teammates Manuel Fettner and Jan Hoerl took fourth and fifth place. Ren Nikaido followed in sixth, while Austria’s Maximilian Ortner and Stephan Embacher finished seventh and eighth, once again highlighting the team’s strength with five athletes in the top ten.

From the perspective of the Austrian Ski Federation, there was also disappointing news. Stefan Kraft was disqualified during qualification following a material inspection. The reason was the same infringement seen earlier during the Four Hills Tournament with Slovenia’s Timi Zajc, as Kraft’s suit was measured too small (suit size −5 mm).

The top ten was completed by Philipp Raimund in ninth place and Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud in tenth.

See the official results of the individual competition on Sunday

Away from the podium decisions, there was another notable highlight. Noriaki Kasai, an active ski jumper since 1988 and a former Four Hills Tournament participant, missed qualification for both competitions, finishing 55th and 56th in the preliminary rounds. As a result, he was unable to take further steps toward a possible ninth Olympic appearance. Nevertheless, the 53-year-old remains committed to his remarkable career and recently stated in an interview that he intends to continue competing until the age of 60.

After the two competitions in Sapporo, Domen Prevc leads the overall World Cup standings convincingly and heads into the upcoming season highlights with growing confidence. The athletes now face an extraordinary weekend, as another major highlight awaits shortly before the Olympic Games with the Ski Flying World Championships at the Heini Klopfer Ski Flying Hill in Oberstdorf.