COC-M: Victory for Felix Schoft
The athletes of the Continentalcup travelled to the Far East this week. Three competitions will be held in Sapporo (JPN) this weekend, among them also one on the normal hill.
And this competition on the HS 100 Miyanomori-hill on Friday was won by Felix Schoft of Germany. The 22-year-old, who also stood on top of the podium at the COC in Sapporo last winter, celebrated his third win in the Continental Cup with jumps of 95 m and 95.5 m (249.5 points). "It's a great result. I had to good jumps today and tomorrow and on Sunday I want to be on the podium again here in Sapporo", said the winner.
The second place went to Lukas Mueller of Austria, who achieved his first podium result in the COC this winter with 94 m in both rounds and a total of 242.5 points. "Honestly I'm pretty surprised about my second place because I didn't well at all in training yesterday."
Surprisingly, the third place went to Seou Choi of South Korea with 236.5 points (91.5 m and 93.5 m). For the 30-year-old this is the best result since January 2006 when he was second in Braunlage. "Actually I'm not in a good shape, but of course I'm very happy about today's result. We have a new German coach and he helps us improving our technique."
Swiss Gregor Deschwanden closely missed the podium as fourth. He was followed by the two best Slovenes Miran Zupancic (5th) and reigning Junior World Champion Nejc Dezman (6th).
Best of the hosting Japanese team was veteran Fumihisa Yumoto, who finished seventh. The eighth place was shared by Germany's Christian Heim and Sho Suzuki of Japan.
With Ole Marius Ingvaldsen (10th) also a jumper of Norway achieved a Top 10 result in Sapporo.
Austrian Stefan Kraft still leads in the overall ranking of the COC with 345 points, ahead of Poland's Klemens Muranka (245 points). With his win today, Felix Schoft (211 points) moved up to third overall.