Jarl Riiber wins the last PCR of the season in Schonach

Jarl Riiber has lived up to the expectations as jumping prodigy in Schonach and took the victory in the last Provisional Competition Round of the winter 2017/18.

With a jump of 102.5 metres, Riiber was the only athlete to cross the 100 m mark in a difficult competition round that had many athletes struggling for metres. Riiber collected a total of 130.4 points, which would put him 38 seconds ahead of World Cup winner Akito Watabe at the start line of the race, should the PCR have to be used this weekend. Watabe showed 98 metres and accumulated 121.0 points.

Watabe’s teammate Go Yamamoto shone once more with a great jump of 97.5 metres, 117.5 points and rank three, which meant a delay of 52 seconds at the start line. Yoshito Watabe completed a Japanese trio on rank four and would start 54 seconds behind the leader.

All other athletes’ handicaps were bigger than one minute with Willi Denifl, Eero Hirvonen, Espen Andersen, Laurent Muhlethlaler, Ernest Yahin and Hideaki Nagai completing the Top Ten. These athletes had time disadvantages ranging from one minute and 10 seconds to one minute and 18 seconds only.

Tobias Simon was the best jumper for the German home team on rank 18 (92.5 m; +1:38), Eric Frenzel followed on rank 20 and local hero Fabian Rießle was 21st. The athletes who did not qualify for tomorrow’s Schwarzwaldpokal event were Jan Vytrval, Denis Parolari, Stephen Schumann, Lukas Runggaldier, Viktor Pasichnyk, Karl-August Tiirmaa, Jasper Good, Taylor Fletcher and Viacheslav Barkov.