Sochi Olympic bronze ski jump medalist Japan managed a runnerup finish against Olympic champion Germany in the men's team event at a World Cup meet on Saturday.
The team from Sochi, comprising Reruhi Shimizu, Daiki Ito, Noriaki Kasai and Taku Takeuchi, took second ahead of Norway with 1,068.9 points. Germany triumphed with 1098.0, while Norway placed third on 1,061.2.
"We thought making a podium finish would be difficult since the other teams were really good in practice, but we were able to bring out our strength as a team," said Kasai. "It felt like we raised our level one rank from Sochi."
Japan's ski jumpers all soared over 130 meters to take a narrow lead in the first round of jumps before Germany rallied from behind in the second round to claim victory.