Unexpected win by Kazuyoshi Funaki

Even in such sport disciplines like ski jumping, miracles do happen. With a tiny advantage of 0.1 point over Austria's Thomas Morgenstern, a Japanese Kazuyoshi Funaki won the first World Cup event in Sapporo, Japan. Norway's Roar Ljoekelsoey completed the podium in third.

After a huge jump from Thomas Morgenstern (135,5 metres), nobody thought that someone could steal him the victory. But the race officials allowed three competitors who had jumped in very bad weather conditions to re-take their first round attempts: Kazuyoshi Funaki was one of them and he didn't spoil the chance that was given to him. He floated 135 metres and thanks to impressive marks for technique he overtook Thomas Morgenstern. He took the lead with a total of 144 points.

Thirteen jumpers made their second round jumps but the FIS Race Director Walter Hofer decided that bad weather conditions made it too dangerous to continue the course. The competition finished after the first round.

In the absence of top ski jumpers- Janne Ahonen, Adam Małysz and Jakub Janda, other competitors had a chance to earn their World Cup points. Two other Japanese jumpers, Noriaki Kasai and Akira Higashi, entered the top 10 in 9th and 10th place respectively. Also young Czech competitors must have been glad with their results: Jan Matura finished in 11th and Antonin Hajek in 22nd position. Only Daiki Ito was probably very disappointed with his performance on home soil: after a feeble jump of 97,5 metres, he took 33rd place.