ADVERTISEMENTGermany’s ski jumpers have started the 2014-15 World Cup season with a home win.
Markus Eisenbichler gave a particularly strong performance, while Severin Freund rounded off a team victory in Klingenthal with jumps of 130.5 and 135 metres.
The home team gave a balanced performance, finishing with a total of 1098.0 points.
The Japanese quartet had a four-point lead at the end of the first round, and had no jump below the 130 metre-mark.
Taku Takeuchi had jumps of 135 and 134.5 metres, while Reruhi Shimizu had a first jump of 137 metres.
But finally it wasn’t enough to beat the German foursome. The Asian team ended the day in second place on 1068.9 points.
After a solid effort, Norway couldn’t quite do enough to overtake the Japanese jumpers. Anders Bardal certainly put up a fight, though, with jumps of 133.5 and 137 metres to his credit.
Anders Fannemal also helped to keep the team in the running for a while, posting an impressive second jump of 144 metres.