Ryoyu Kobayashi earns victory in high winds in Lahti, builds his confidence for Planica

BySportsbeat

Updated 26/03/2023 at 20:10 GMT

Ryoyu Kobayashi took Ski Jumping gold despite the heavy winds in Finland. It was his first Ski Jumping World Cup victory since January as he coped with the conditions better than his rivals. He said: "That was a difficult competition today, but it was also fun. Now I'm looking forward to the next weekend in Planica, I hope that I'll manage really long flights to 250 meters there."

Kobayashi seals victory in high winds in Lahti

Ryoyu Kobayashi earned his first victory at the Ski Jumping World Cup since January with a dominant performance in Lahti.

This year's Crystal Globe may be out of reach for the defending champion, but Kobayashi impressed in Finland to win his third individual gold of the season, and his 30th career World Cup victory.

Kobayashi finished 4.1 points ahead of Stefan Kraft, with Karl Geiger completing the podium ahead of the final weekend of action in Planica next week.

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Halvor Egner Granerud has already wrapped up this year's Crystal Globe, but the race to complete the podium remains.

Just the one round of jumping took place due to heavy winds, with the first round taking almost two hours to complete, meaning Kobayashi was crowned the winner thanks to his first effort of 136.5m

The victory marked a positive end to the season for Kobayashi, who has not shown the form that has yielded him two Crystal Globes.

He said: "That was a difficult competition today, but it was also fun.

"Now I'm looking forward to the next weekend in Planica, I hope that I'll manage really long flights to 250 meters there."

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