The Japanese Ryoyu Kobayashi won the 70th Four Hills Tournament of ski jumpers, but missed the “Grand Slam”, that is, the repeated four-fold victory in all competitions. On Thursday in Bischofshofen, the 25-year-old finished fifth, but it was enough for the overall victory in front of the two Norwegians Marius Lindvik from Norway and Halvor Egner Granerud. The winner of the day in Pongau was the Austrian Daniel Huber. Despite being in the lead in the first round, Karl Geiger had to be content with third place. (To the result of the fourth jump.)
The German Sven Hannawald (2001/02), Poland’s Kamil Stoch (2017/18) and Kobayashi himself (2018/19) remain the only four-time winners. Kobayashi receives prize money of 100,000 Swiss francs (around 96,000 euros).
“I am happy that I won the golden eagle. I am totally happy,” said Kobayashi and added: “I am a bit exhausted. The happiest thing is that I was able to show stable jumps all the time.”
20 years after Hannawald’s victory, the German ski jumpers of national coach Stefan Horngacher have to wait for the longed-for title at the traditional event. Geiger and Markus Eisenbichler, who finished eighth of the day on Thursday, have been too inconsistent over the past ten days and have achieved top performances too rarely. The two Germans thus took fourth and fifth place in the final accounts.
After the exhausting anniversary tour, the ski jumpers only have one day off. It will continue on Saturday, there are two more competitions in Bischofshofen on the program. This is followed by further weekends in Zakopane, Poland, up to the Olympic Games in Beijing (February 4th to 20th) and two German home games in Titisee-Neustadt and Willingen. With his strong performances on the tour, Kobayashi also overtook the Allgäu violinist in the overall ranking and took over the yellow jersey of the World Cup leader.