Home victory for Akito Watabe in Sapporo

Akito Watabe has been the one to end the German victory series in the winter of 2016/17 and finally claimed his long awaited home victory. The Japanese won in Sapporo, finishing 4 seconds ahead of Switzerland's Tim Hug. Manuel Faißt upheld the German team's honour on the third rank, 12.3 seconds behind Watabe.

Japanese jumping sensation Hisaki Nagamine truly earned the title of „King of the Hill“ with his third jumping victory in as many days. Today, he showed amazing 138 metres which gave him a total of 128.8 points but only a narrow 4-second lead on Manuel Faißt. Faißt  hit his jump well and landed at 135.5 metres (127.7 p.). Veteran Håvard Klemetsen also returned to old jumping strength and had a jump of 135.5 metres which meant a time disadvantage of 16 seconds for the race.

Crowd favourite Akito Watabe had 134.5 metres to show for and followed the three athletes out on the track from position four with a delay of 25 seconds. Yesterday’s winner and third-placed Björn Kircheisen and Mikko Kokslien had slightly weaker jumps today but were able to start the race together from positions 13 and 14, one minute and 32 and 33 seconds behind Nagamine. Switzerland’s Tim Hug was performing well on the jumping hill again. 131.5 metres (120.9 p.) put him in position five at the intermediate point, 32 seconds behind the leader.

The three podium athletes were able to ski together for most part of the cross-country race. Manuel Faißt paired up with leader Nagamine for the first lap but they were soon joined by Akito Watabe and Tim Hug. By the halfway point, Håvard Klemetsen and Nagamine had dropped from the top group and after this, the trio continued to interchange in the lead.

On the last lap, there was no stopping Akito Watabe, who really wanted to achieve his home victory. Manuel Faißt had to concede defeat first while Tim Hug stayed with Watabe until the stadium. But in the last turn, exactly where he had lost the race against Kicheisen yesterday, Watabe just went for it and the Swiss proved to be no match. In the end, an overjoyed Watabe was able to collect the fruits of his labours and enjoyed the cheering crowd.

For the 28-year-old, this was the first victory after Oslo in March 2015 and an incredible series of second places in the season 2015/16. Hug was overjoyed to return to the podium after his maiden win in Chaikovskiy in 2014 and for Manuel Faißt, this was the second podium result of his career.

Behind the top group, Mikko Kokslien skied through the field again but today he was not able to come closer than 45 seconds. He finished on position four, followed by fellow Norwegian Klemetsen on five. Again, the Japanese team had a very strong team result with Watanabe, Nagai and Kato also finishing in the Top Ten.