PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA – Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi, Taku Takeuchi and Junshiro Kobayashi were unable to medal in the men’s large hill jump on Saturday night at the Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre, while teammate Noriaki Kasai was eliminated in the first round.
Poland’s Kamil Stoch won the gold medal on the final jump of the night in dramatic fashion. He flew 136.5 meters with the last leap for a total score of 285.7 points to overtake Germany’s Andreas Wellinger, who was on the verge of completing a golden double.
Wellinger settled for the silver with 142.0 and 282.3, while Norway’s Robert Johansson claimed the bronze with 134.5 and 275.3.
It was the second medal of the Pyeongchang Games for both Wellinger and Johansson. Wellinger took the gold in the normal hill jump the previous Saturday night, while Johansson collected the bronze.
The victory gave Stoch the third Olympic gold of his career. He won both the normal hill and large hill jumps four years ago at the Sochi Games.
“It’s unbelievable, I can’t describe the feeling right now inside me,” Stoch stated. “I feel like I’m still dreaming, but this is a beautiful dream so I don’t want to wake up.”
Kasai, who was the silver medalist in this event four years ago in Sochi, failed to qualify for the final round after a disappointing jump of 121.0 and a tally of 107.9 in the first round. He came in 33rd and was dropped when the field was cut from 50 to 30.
Ryoyu Kobayashi was Japan’s top finisher, ending up in a three-way tie for 10th place, after a final round vault of 128.0 for a total of 258.0.
He had the best jump for the Japan team in the first round after leaping 135.5 for a score of 134.0. He was seventh going into the final round.
Takeuchi came in 22nd after he went 125.5 in the final round to end up with 234.2.
Takeuchi was 27th after posting 124.0 and 109.8 in the first round.
Junshiro Kobayashi finished 24th after registering 122.0 and 224.8 in the final round.
He was 26th in the opening round with a jump 122.0 for a score of 114.8.
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