Ryoyu Kobayashi brings up World Cup landmark by flying to victory in Finland
BySportsbeat
Updated 27/11/2021 at 19:52 GMT
Ryoyu Kobayashi became just the 15th man to reach 20 individual Ski Jumping World Cup wins as he flew to victory in Finland. The 2019 World Cup champion had laid down a marker by sparkling in Friday's qualifying and carried on where he left off 24 hours later in freezing Ruka conditions.
Ryoyu Kobayashi | Ski Jumping | ESP Player Feature
Image credit: Getty Images
Ryoyu Kobayashi became just the 15th man to reach 20 individual Ski Jumping World Cup wins as he flew to victory in Finland.
The Japanese ace, 25, brought up the landmark by beating Slovenian Anze Lanisek after racking up an imposing haul of 324.5 points.
The 2019 World Cup champion had laid down a marker by sparkling in Friday's qualifying and carried on where he left off 24 hours later in freezing Ruka conditions.
With the mercury reaching as low as -17°C in the Scandinavian mountains, Kobayashi was forced to battle as he trailed Lanisek, 25, by 2.5m and 1.4 points after the first jump.
But he propelled himself a stunning 143m on his second attempt to leapfrog the World Championship bronze medallist and claim his first win of the season.
German Markus Eisenbichler finished third with 304.4 points - over 20 fewer than Kobayashi - to beat Austrian Stefan Kraft onto the podium.
But it was all about Kobayashi as the result saw him join an elite group of ski jumpers to boast at least 20 individual World Cup victories.
Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer, a four-time Olympic medallist, leads the way on a staggering 53 while Matti Nykanen - 46 - Adam Malysz and Kamil Stoch - both 39 - lie second, third and fourth in the overall standings.
Kobayashi still has some way to go but you wouldn't bet against him making a dent into the deficit this season as he kickstarted his campaign in style this weekend.
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