(Reuters) – Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi geared up for the Winter Olympics in style, clinching his seventh World Cup win of the season in a large-hill event at Willingen, Germany, on Saturday to soar to the top of the overall standings.
Kobayashi, one of the favourites for Beijing, leapt 145m and was awarded 115.6 points, easily beating Norway’s Halvor Egner Granerud by four points. Granerud’s countryman Marius Lindvik took third with 107 points.
The competition had to be reduced to just one jump due to heavy rain and strong winds.
“Of course, I’m happy about my win. I was also lucky with the conditions today, but that’s what you need to finish on top on days like today. It was really difficult,” Kobayashi said after his 26th World Cup victory.
The 25-year-old now has a 27-point lead over Karl Geiger in the overall classification after the German could manage only 19th place on home soil.
Kobayashi finished seventh in the normal hill and 10th in the large hill in Pyeongchang four years ago but is tipped to improve that showing at this year’s Games, which get underway on Friday.
On the women’s side, Austria’s Marita Kramer extended her overall advantage with a 13th World Cup career triumph, winning with a jump of 123.5m ahead of Katharina Althaus and Ema Klinec.
The competitors take part in another large-hill event on Sunday before leaving for China.
(Reporting by Dhruv Munjal in Bengaluru; editing by William Mallard)
