San Francisco Frontiers - Japan's Kobayashi clinches third Four Hills ski jump crown

Kobayashi added the 2024 title to triumphs in 2019, when he swept all four rounds, and 2022 after finishing in second place in the last of the four events at Bischofshofen in Austria.

The 27-year-old joins Janne Ahonen (five), Jens Weissflog (four), Helmut Recknagel (three), Bjorn Wirkola (three) and Kamil Stoch (three) to have claimed three titles in the event held in Germany and Austria at Oberstdorf, Garmisch, Innsbruck and Bischofshofen.

"Today there was too much happening, but I concentrated on my jumping and I was really satisfied," said Olympic champion Kobayashi.

The Japanese star recorded jumps of 137m and 139m to finish second on the day with a total of 287.6 points.

That gave him an overall total of 1,145.2 points to the 1,120.7 points of closest rival, Germany's Andreas Wellinger, who won the opening round at Oberstdorf.

Kobayashi was beaten out for the win on the day by World Cup leader Stefan Kraft of Austria.

Kraft had trailed by just 1.2 points after the opening round and a 140m second round jump saw him sneak past Kobayashi for a total of 288.9 points.

Kraft edged out Jan Hoerl, the winner at Innsbruck, to finish the tournament in third placed overall.

Kobayashi won the Four Hills by recording four second-placed finishes behind four different winners at each of the rounds.

Ahonen was the last man to win the trophy without an event victory, doing so in 1999.

M.Hill--SFF