Japan was unable to make up any significant ground in the cross-country race and finished in sixth place in the Nordic combined team event at the Winter Olympics on Thursday.
Japan's Norihito Kobayashi changes to Yosuke Hatakeyama during the cross country relay of the Nordic Combined team competition at the Winter Olympic Games in Pragelato Plan, Italy.
Japan, fifth upon the completion of the rescheduled second round of jumps in the ski jumping section earlier in the day, briefly moved into third during the race but Yosuke Hatakeyama ran out of steam over the final leg in Pragelato.
Mario Stecher produced a superb final run to beat Germany anchorman Jens Gaiser by 15.3 seconds as Austria came from behind to beat its archrivals and take the gold medal for the first time.