The Austrian Kraft won in Sapporo. DSV Adler Wellinger also made it onto the podium – and the 51-year-old Japanese Kasai sparked enthusiasm.
Things remained exciting until the end at the World Cup ski jumping in Sapporo, Japan. In the end, the Austrian and overall World Cup leader Stefan Kraft prevailed. Andreas Wellinger also made it onto the podium and came third behind Ryōyū Kobayashi.
Wellinger flew at 127.5 and 134.0 meters on the Okurayama hill. After the first round he was still in fourth place and then started to catch up. However, he had to let Kobayash pass in the fight for the overall World Cup. The Four Hills Tournament winner pushed Wellinger to third place in the fight for the crystal ball.
51-year-old makes World Cup comeback after years
Noriaki Kasai caused great cheers. The oldest jumper in World Cup history made it into the second round in his first start in four years and the 570th of his career, but had to settle for 30th place. The 51-year-old was still the fourth-best Japanese and collected his first World Cup point since March 2019.
From a German perspective, there was a big gap behind Wellinger, as has often been the case in recent weeks. As the second best DSV Adler, Stephan Leyhe, who came second once in Sapporo in 2020, followed in 16th place.
A week after the first podium finish of his career, Philipp Raimund had to settle for position 21, but was still ahead of Karl Geiger (22nd) and Felix Hoffmann (27th). As in Lake Placid, Pius Paschke (34th) was eliminated early.