Japan's Kobayashi wins men's normal hill individual gold at Beijing 2022

CHONGLI, Zhangjiakou, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Japanese ski jumper Ryoyu Kobayashi won the men's normal hill individual gold medal at Beijing 2022 on Sunday.

Kobayashi, 25, scored 145.4 points in the first round, achieving a 6.2-point lead before his final jump of 99.5 meters to secure the win.

"Today I had only good feelings when I was performing. I realized many things that I missed at the last Olympics, so this time I did what I had to do. This is why I got the victory," said Kobayashi, who finished seventh in the event at PyeongChang 2018.

Manuel Fettner of Austria made a 104-meter jump in the final round to grab silver at the National Ski Jumping Center. Poland's Dawid Kubacki came third ahead of fourth-placed Peter Prevc of Slovenia.

"The second jump was really good. I really hit the table. I knew it a little bit in the air and also at the landing," Fettner noted.

Just as in the women's competition, a new Olympic champion had been expected in the men's normal hill individual before the Games, as PyeongChang 2018 gold medalist Andreas Wellinger was not selected for the German team at Beijing 2022 due to a slow start to the 2021-22 season.

Wellinger's fellow German Karl Geiger, this season's World Cup leader, has struggled since the official training at Beijing 2022 and ended the finals 15th with 252.8 points.

Norway's Marius Lindvik and Robert Johansson, both of whom had taken the lead in the qualification round the day before, could not continue their momentum on Sunday and finished seventh and 20th respectively.