PLANICA (Slovenia): Ryoyu Kobayashi of Japan won the overall ski jumping World Cup title on Sunday after finally pipping German rival Karl Geiger on the final day of their months-long tussle.

Kobayashi, 25, finished eighth in Sunday’s World Cup final in Planica, earning enough points to see off Geiger, who was 16th, to win the overall crown.

Kobayashi finished with 1621 points to Geiger’s 1515.

In bright sunshine and spring temperatures, Geiger was the first to congratulate Kobayashi.

The Japanese, this winter’s Four Hills champion, claimed the second overall World Cup title of his career following his 2018/19 triumph.

Norway’s Olympic individual champion Marius Lindvik landed leaps of 241.5 and 245.5 metres to win Sunday’s final World Cup event ahead of Japan’s Yukiya Sato.

Germany’s Severin Freund, 33, the 2014/15 overall World Cup champion, announced his retirement after finishing the season in 30th place.

The three-time individual world champion and 2014 Olympic team gold medallist tore his cruciate ligament in 2017, but returned to eventually win the team world title with Germany last year.

AFP