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Sunday, 24 January 2021
Superb jumping, tactical acumen and sheer nerve enabled Japan’s Akito Watabe to earn his first individual victory of the season at the International Ski Federation (FIS) Nordic Combined World Cup in the Finnish city Lahti.
Watabe thus drew level on 19 career World Cup wins with legendary fellow countryman Kenji Ogiwara, who won Olympic relay gold at the Albertville 1992 and Lillehammer 1994 Winter Olympic Games.
Himself a double Olympic silver medallist, Watabe finished 10.8sec clear of Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber after covering the second half of the concluding 10 kilometres cross-country on his own.
After producing the second-best jump of the day into a prevailing headwind - 129.5 metres earning him 132.1 points - Watabe had begun the cross-country just a second behind his young compatriot Ryota Yamamoto, who jumped 126m to earn 132.3 points.