Akito Watabe placed second for his second straight podium finish Friday at the men's Nordic Combined World Cup meet won by his German rival Eric Frenzel.
After losing his balance due to a collision with Frezel at the final stretch of the 10-km cross country ski race, Watabe crossed the goal line 1.7 seconds behind Frenzel, who posted his seventh victory this season with a total time of 23 minutes, 57.7 seconds.
"My ski pole got caught in Frenzel's skis. Oh well, it can't be helped. I finished second, but it was a good race and I'm satisfied with how I did today," said Watabe, who missed out on his first victory of the season.
Jan Schmid of Norway was third in 24:29.9.
In ski jumping, Noriaki Kasai finished seventh with 246.6 points and Daiki Ito was 10th.