Nejc Dezman also won the second Continental Cup competition in Sapporo and captured the fourth win in a row for the team of Slovenia. Like already on Thursday, the second place was also shared by two athletes on Friday, this time Robert Hrgota and Takanobu Okabe.
On Friday morning in Japan, Nejc Dezman posted jumps on 88 m and 90.5 m and celebrated his second win in a row with 220.5 points. "Although I made a mistake at the take-off and my jumps were not perfect, the result was good", said the winner, who didn't expect to be that successful here. "I'm in a good shape, but winning on the normal hill is a surprise because usually I'm better on the large hill."
His teammate Robert Hrgota (87 m and 92.5 m) and veteran Takanobu Okabe of Japan (86.5 m and 90.5 m) came in second with 219.0 points. The 43-year-old moved up from ninth to the podium in the final round. "I didn't jump so well yesterday, so I didn't expect this second place. I'm satisfied that I had two good jumps", told Hrgota. Takanobu Okabe said that the conditions were responsible for his good result: "My shape wasn't so good and I was lucky that I came in second due to the good wind. I'll keep doing my best to be on the podium again."
Germany's Daniel Wenig was in the lead after the first round with a jump on 90 m. With his 87 m in the final the athlete of Berchtesgaden finished fourth overall, followed by his teammate Karl Geiger in fifth.
Behind Japanese Yukiya Sato (6th), Pius Paschke and Danny Queck came in seventh and eighth and completedthe very good result for the German team with four jumpers among the Top 10.
Queck shared his place with Shusaku Hosoyama of Japan, who moved up from 26th to eighth with 91 m in the second round, and Slovenia's Miran Zupancic.
The longest jump of the day was shown by Markus Eisenbichler of Germany with 94.5 m in the second round. But he fell and therefore finished only 13th.
With his two wins in Sapporo, Nejc Dezman took the lead in the overall ranking of the COC with 375 points. Austrians Manuel Poppinger (354 points) and Michael Hayboeck (350 points) are second and third, both are currently competing in the World Cups in Poland.
Robert Hrgota, Takanobu Okabe, Nejc Dezman - FIS