The Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi made himself the favorite for the classic at the turn of the year yesterday in the last competition before the Four Hills Tournament. The 25-year-old won the second Engelberg World Cup after finishing second the day before, behind Karl Geiger – even though he had previously had tough days in quarantine in a Finnish hotel.
Immediately after his World Cup victory in Ruka, Kobayashi delivered a positive corona test. Even though he has been vaccinated and has recovered from the disease. Some of the rapid tests carried out afterwards showed a negative result. But the Japanese still had to spend ten days in isolation in his hotel room. “I tried to relax,” the 2019 tour winner tried to take it easy.
He did not lose this looseness during the touring dress rehearsal either. Kobayashi showed the most consistent performance in the field in difficult wind conditions and in the end had a 12.2 point lead over the German violinist, who continues to be the leader in the World Cup. Third was the Norwegian Marius Lindvik. The Swiss Kilian Peier, surprisingly ahead at halftime, fell back to fourth.
ÖSV-Adler not in the top field
Austria’s eagles could no longer recharge their batteries for the classic that started with the jumping on December 29th in Oberstdorf. The best local was Daniel Huber in eighth place, he lost 29.4 points to the winner. Daniel Tschofenig delivered at least his best result of the season in tenth place. Another world champion, Stefan Kraft, fell victim to the wind. He improved from 23rd to 14th place. (Fei)
Source: Nachrichten
