In Ruka, Ryoyu Kobayashi blooms

The Japanese got the first two successes of his career and won the yellow bib.

Sunday 25 November 2018 5 minutes reading time

On Saturday the difficult weather conditions forced the race direction to stop the competition at the end of the first series. The strong headwind, however, made the test very spectacular, allowing athletes to reach remarkable sizes. The best was that of the Slovenian Domen Prevc, who exploited almost two meters of wind in favor and landed at 146 m, but at the foot of the podium. Ryoyu Kobayashi, after climbing for the first time on the podium last week in WisÅ‚a, achieved his first career victory, putting behind him nothing less than Kamil Stoch. The Japanese, not particularly lucky with the wind conditions, reached 138.5 m. On the other hand, the Pole went two meters further, losing points on the compensation and therefore having to settle for the place of honor, 2.1 points from the winner. Third position for another Pole, Piotr Zyla, able to land with a good telemark at 136 m. Also in the top 10 were Karl Geiger 5th and rapidly rising in the hierarchies of Germany, the Bulgarian Zografski 6th, the young Slovenian Zajc 7th, Johansson 8th, Wellinger 9th and Lanisek 10th. Good performance also for Gregor Schlierenzauer 12th, while Stephan Leyhe 16th and the winner of WisÅ‚a Klimov struggled the most. The youngest of the Kobayashi brothers repeated himself in today's race, inflicting substantial gaps to all opponents. The Japanese has in fact imposed by a large margin in both series, recording both the first and second jump the best measures of the day. In the end, the advantage on the second place, Andreas Wellinger, was even 22 points, an abyss. It is clear that the boy is in a state of grace, it remains to be seen whether he will be able to give continuity to his performances. Behind him, the fight for the remaining podium positions was closer. As said, the place of honor went to Wellinger, who preceded by three lengths Kamil Stoch. Domen Prevc was also confirmed, but he had to settle for another fourth place. The Slovenian preceded an excellent Piotr Zyla 5th and Stephan Leyhe 6th. Seventh place instead for the best of the Norwegians, Robert Johansson. Also in the top 10 are Karl Geiger 8th, Johann Andre Forfang 9th and Stefan Kraft 10th. With this double Ryoyu Kobayashi wins the yellow bib of leader of the general classification. The Japanese drives with 260 points, 70 more than Kamil Stoch. Next weekend the World Cup will move to Russia, in Nizhny Tagil, where two individual races are scheduled. Here the complete result of the first race! Here the complete result of the second race! Here the overall World Cup standings!