Japan fell behind and had to settle for fourth place in the Nordic combined men's team event Saturday at the FIS Nordic Ski World Championships, failing in its bid to reach the podium for the first time in 10 years.
Team Japan, composed of brothers Akito and Yoshito Watabe, Hideaki Nagai and Go Yamamoto, started the 4x5-km relay in second place just 0.01 second off the lead after a solid ski jumping round.
But the men dropped to fourth by the third leg of the highly-contested race, and after falling over a minute behind due to Nagai's struggles with a broken pole, anchor Akito Watabe could only cross the line 28.7 seconds behind despite a heroic effort.