Prevc on Four Hills glory course but Nikaido ends his grand slam bid

5 days ago 2

Domen Prevc's bid for a rare grand slam of victories at one Four Hills Tour ended on Sunday when he was beaten by the tiniest margin of half a point by Japan's Ren Nikaido in a nail-biting third competition.

Nikaido claimed his first career victory with 131 and 128 metres on the Bergisel large hill while Prevc managed 129.5m and 128m.

Austrian teenager Stephan Embacher completed the podium in third with 130m and 127.5m. He had shared first place with Nikaido after the first round before missing victory by a mere 0.7 points.

Translated into distance, Nikaido beat Prevc by 30 centimetres but the Slovenian star remains firmly on course towards a first Four Hills title.

Prevc had completely dominated the first two Four Hills stops in Germany for seven victories from the last eight events but he struggled in 30th place in qualifying on Saturday in Innsbruck.

He recovered to rank fourth in the first round, 2.4 points behind the leaders, and then just missed out.

But he further stretched his overall Four Hills lead to 41.4 points or more than 20 metres ahead of Austrian Jan Hörl, who placed fourth on the day, going into Tuesday's finale in Bischofshofen.

Polish great Kamil Stoch, one of three men who have achieved a grand slam by winning at all stops of one Four Hills, failed to qualify for the second round.