Michael Neumayer surprisingly won the first FIS Grand Prix competition in Hakuba, Japan. The 36-year-old scored 251.0 points with his jumps on 128.5 m and 122.5 m. He came in close ahead of Slovenia's Robert Kranjec and local hero Kento Sakuyama and took the first win of his career in a Grand Prix competition.

"It feels very good. I was in the lead in the Grand Prix once, but then I was not able to take the win. So far my performances weren't that good, but if I jump like this I have a good chance to earn my spot on the team. I hope this gives me some self-confidence."

Kranjec ends dry spell

But also Kranjec can be more than satisfied. With jumps on 122.5 m and 127.5 m the 34-year-old came in only 0.7 points behind the winner and achieved his first podium result in the Grand Prix in six years. The Slovene said: "I was hoping that I can jump that well. My jumps were already on a very high level in the last weeks but in the competitions in Europe I couldn't find the right feeling. That's why I'm very happy that I did well in the competition and not only in training. Tomorrow is a new day. I hope I can sleep well, because I had some problems with that. Hopefully then I can jump as well as today again."

Only 0.1 point behind, Kento Sakuyama showed his impressive shape again in third with 124 m and 124.5 m. This was already his third podium result this summer.

Strong performances of Slovenes and Japanese

With Anze Semenic, who jumped on 127.5 m and 123.5 m for 247.2 points, another Slovene finished fourth. His teammate Nejc Dezman came in seventh with 243.7 points under perfect ski jumping weather with about 20°C. Also the local fans could to be satisfied. Besides Sakuyama, Daiki Ito, fifth with 245.8 points, Taku Takeuchi (244.7 points) in sixth and Noriaki Kasai (241.1 points) in eighth achieved top results.

Like in Courchevel, Czech Lukas Hlava finished in the Top 10 again in ninth with 238.7 points, Andreas Wank shared the tenth place with Jaka Hvala.

Ammann not among the best

Despite the small field of competitors with only 42 athletes and the absence of many top jumpers, Simon Ammann could not seize the opportunity to achieve a very good result and finished 12th. Finland's Lauri Asikainen, Harri Olli and Jarkko Maeaettae landed on the places 14 to 16. At least Maeaettae had probably hoped for more.

Korean Seou Choi came in 19th, his best Grand Prix result in eight years. Mikhail Maksimochkin and Ilmir Hazetdinov scored points for Russia in 22nd and 23rd.

Jernej Damjan, last year's overall Grand Prix winner, was only 30th.

The second competition in Hakuba follows on Sunday at 3:00 am CET.

Source: fis-ski.com