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From the Olympics Toword Tomorrow
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Harada wins TVh Cup ski jumping with hill record
World large-hill champion Harada, who slumped to fifth place in Saturday's UHB Cup meet, bounced back with the record-setting jump coupled with a solid 120.5-meter jump in the second round at the Okurayama large hill in Sapporo.
Harada's winning total of 269.8 points was enough to hold off fellow Nagano Olympic gold medal favorite Kazuyoshi Funaki, who had superb jumps of 125 and 124 meters for 253.7 points.
Akira Higashi, who missed out on a place in Japan's Olympic squad, took third with 252.3 by traveling 123 and 125.5 meters.
''I was guessing in the air that birds must be flying this way,'' said Harada, who eclipsed the previous hill mark by 2.5 meters on the hill used for the 1972 Sapporo Olympics.
All eight Olympic team members made the top 10, with Hiroya Saito finishing fourth, Takanobu Okabe fifth and Kenji Suda sixth.
Struggling former world champion Okabe turned in a short-lived hill record of 138.5 meters on his first attempt but faltered to 113 meters in the second round.
Okabe's inconsistency still leaves Japanese ski officials perplexed over selecting a fourth jumper for the team competition at the Feb. 7-22 Nagano Games.
Harada, Funaki and Saito are considered sure choices for the four-man team for the host country, a heavy gold medal favorite at the Feb. 17 event in the ski resort of Hakuba.
(Kyodo News)
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Copyright 1998 The Shinano Mainichi Shimbun