Germany’s Leyhe captures maiden World Cup ski-jump win, Sunday off

Willingen, Germany (dpa) – Germany’s Stephan Leyhe captured his maiden World Cup ski-jumping win with victory on home soil in Willingen on Saturday.

Leyhe had jumps of 139.5 and 144.5 metres for 266.4 points on the large hill to finish 4 points ahead of Marius Lindvik of Norway and 11.8 ahead of Kamil Stoch of Poland.

World Cup leader Stefan Kraft of Austria finished fourth but managed to extend to 68 points his lead over Germany’s Karl Geiger, who was fifth.

Sunday’s jump in Willingen has been cancelled due to a storm and the forecast of wind speeds of up to 160 km/h, organizers said.

The women’s ski-jumping event in Hinzenbach, Austria was won by local favourite and World Cup leader Chiara Hoelzl ahead of Norway’s Maren Lundby and fellow Austrian Eva Pinkelnig.

Hoelzl had jumps of 86 and 91 metres for 250.3 points, almost 10 points ahead of Lundby and 12.9 ahead of Pinkelnig for her fifth win of the season.

In Falun, Sweden, Paal Golberg led a Norwegian one-two in the men’s World Cup cross-country sprint final while Sweden’s Linn Svahn won the women’s event before home fans.

Golberg finished 0.52 seconds ahead of team-mate Erik Valnes while overall World Cup leader Alexander Bolshunov of Russia took third place at 0.92 seconds.

Svahn clinched the women’s final in a photo finish, 0.08 seconds ahead of Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva, who just edged Svahn’s team-mate Jonna Sundling.

Sunday sees men’s and women’s mass starts in Falun.