ZHANGJIAKOU (China): Japan’s Ryoyu Kobayashi won ski jumping gold on the men’s normal hill at the Beijing Olympics on Sunday, holding his nerve while his main title rivals lost theirs.

Kobayashi led after the first round and sealed the deal with his second jump to finish on 275.0 points.

Kobayashi, 25, was the first Japanese to claim an Olympic title in individual ski jumping since Kazuyoshi Funaki clinched the large hill gold medal in Nagano, Japan, in 1998.

“I’m happy to have a good jump in both attempts. I’m happy to win this gold medal. I’ll try hard next time as well,” Kobayashi said.

World Cup leader Karl Geiger of Germany, who had struggled all week in practice, finished 15th after a disastrous performance.

Much-fancied Norwegians Halvor Egner Granerud and Marius Lindvik also finished well out of contention.

Austria’s 36-year-old veteran Manuel Fettner claimed silver on 270.8 points, while Poland’s Dawid Kubacki took bronze on 265.9.

AFP (with inputs from JIJI Press)