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From the Olympics Toward Tomorrow
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Funaki wins large hill jumping, Harada takes bronze
 Japan's Kazuyoshi Funaki |
9:30- Start
Japan's Kazuyoshi Funaki and Masahiko Harada reasserted their claims as the top ski jumpers in the world, winning the gold and bronze medals at the Nagano Olympic Winter Games' large hill event with outstanding second jumps Sunday.
Funaki, fourth after a first-round attempt of 126 meters, nailed a monster leap of 132.5 meters on his second try at the Olympic ski jumping stadium and earned perfect style points of 60 for a winning total of 272.3 points.
The gold was Funaki's second medal of the Games as well as the third gold for Japan, which has never won more than one gold medal in a single Winter Olympics. Funaki was the silver medalist in the normal hill event Wednesday.
Jani Soininen of Finland also won his second medal of the Nagano Games with two solid jumps of 129.5 and 126.5 meters, adding the silver to Wednesday's normal hill gold.
Funaki said, ''I was able to show everything I had in the second round.'' ''I can say I performed the best jump in the second round in the best winds and I got the best style points.''
''I'm happy but I know I can't be fully satisfied with this gold medal because my career will still continue,'' he said.
The 22-year-old Funaki had to wait for several minutes after the end of the competition before knowing he was the winner. But the wait was not an anxious one but more joyful.
His name was already on top of the leaderboard at the end of the second round of jumps and what remained unknown was number of points teammate Harada had accrued -- meaning that either could have been declared the gold medal winner.
Reigning world large hill champion Harada, sixth after the first round, set a new hill record of 136 meters at the 120-meter large hill in Hakuba.
Harada's jump carried beyond the video distance-calculation system which can measure jumps up to 135 meters and organizers were left to measure the length of his jump manually.
Even before the final results came out, Funaki and Harada hugged each other before a partisan crowd of some 35,000 to share the joy of winning Japan's first ski jumping gold since Yukio Kasaya led a Japanese sweep of the 70-meter medals podium at the 1972 Sapporo Games.
''I was able to go to the limit of my strength. I would say I really did well'' said Harada, who finished outside the medals four days ago despite holding the lead after the first round.
He placed sixth by traveling 120 meters on his first try Sunday.
The Olympic gold gave Funaki, known for his superb jumping style both in the air and in the landing zone, all the major ski jumping titles this season.
The current World Cup tour leader won the Four Hills tournament crown over the New Year's holidays, followed by a victory at the world ski flying championship later in January -- both in Europe.
For Harada, the 29-year-old veteran jumper finally snared his first Olympic medal in an individual event in his third appearance in the Winter Games.
Unfortunately, Harada is probably better known for his poor jump at the Lillehammer Games four years ago that cost Japan the gold medal in the team jumping event than for his two world championship titles.
Austria's Andreas Widhoelzl, the normal hill bronze medal winner, could not preserve his first-round lead and settled for fourth with 258.2, a mere 0.1 point behind Harada.
Slovenia's Primoz Peterka, overall World Cup champion in the 1996-1997 season, finished fifth in front of Japan's Takanobu Okabe whose 119.5-meter jump dropped him to sixth after being No. 2 following a 130-meter leap in the first round.
Shifting winds with intermittent snowfalls apparently affected some of the world's top jumpers such as Germany's Dieter Thoma who ended up in 12th and Japan's Hiroya Saito, who failed to advance to the second round. (Kyodo News)
Final results of large-hill (K-120) individual ski jumping Sunday in the 18th Olympic Winter Games at Hakuba, Nagano Prefecture:
1. Kazuyoshi Funaki, Japan 272.3 points (first jump 129.8 points, second jump 142.5)
2. Jani Soininen, Finland 260.8 (130.6, 130.2)
3. Masahiko Harada, Japan 258.3 (117.0, 141.3)
4. Andreas Widhoelzl, Austria 258.2 (138.8, 119.4)
5. Primoz Peterka, Slovenia 251.1 (115.2, 135.9)
6. Takanobu Okabe, Japan 250.1 (134.0, 116.1)
7. Reinhard Schwarzenberger, Austria 244.2 (108.4, 135.8)
8. Michal Dolezal, Czech Republic 243.2 (107.8, 135.4)
9. Roar Ljoekelsoey, Norway 242.3 (116.6, 125.7)
10. Lasse Ottesen, Norway 238.9 (118.8, 120.1)
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25. Stanislav Filimonov, Kazakstan 206.6 (98.3, 108.3)
40. Choi Heung Chul, South Korea 89.1
42. Pavel Gaiduk, Kazakstan 87.1
46. Alexandr Kolmakov, Kazakstan 80.7
47. Hiroya Saito, Japan 79.5
49. Dmitriy Chvykov, Kazakstan 76.2
51. Kim Hyun Ki, South Korea 72.9
53. Choi Yong Jik, South Korea 66.6
59. Kakhaber Tsakadze, Georgia 52.6
62. Kim Heung Soo, South Korea 9.9
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Copyright 1999 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun