02/15/98 K120 Individual, Kazuyoshi Funaki (JPN) - gold, Jani Soininen (FIN) - silver, and Masahiko Harada (JPN) - bronze 
02/11/98 Jani Soininen at the Victory Ceremony 
02/11/98 K90 Individual - Hiroya Saito (JPN) 
02/11/98 K90 Individual Kazuyoshi Funaki (JPN) - silver 
02/11/98 K90 Individual Jani Soininen (FIN) - gold 
02/11/98 K90 Individual Hiroya Saito (JPN) 
02/11/98 K90 Individual Noriaki Kasai (JPN) 
02/11/98N K90 Individual Masahiko Harada (JPN) |
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Men's K90 Individual
Jani Soininen of Finland won the 90 metre ski jump event. He finished with a total score of 234.5 points. Soininen was a surprising winner and he jumped 89 metres in the second round. Japan's Kazuyoshi Funaki won the silver. He jumped 90.5 metres on his second jump for a total of 233.5 points. Austrian Andreas Widhoelzl held on to bronze from Janne Ahonen of Finland who had the longest jump of the second round with 91.5 metres. Masahiko Harada finished a disappointing fifth. He was expected to win but failed under pressure with a bad jump of 84.5 metres in the second round. Harada led after the first round with 121 points. Men's K90 Individual Final Results PLACE ATHLETE COUNTRY POINTS ===== ======= ======= ====== 1 Jani Soininen Finland 234.5 2 Kazuyoshi Funaki Japan 233.5 3 Andreas Widhoelzl Austria 232.5 4 Janne Ahonen Finland 231.5 5 Masahiko Harada Japan 228.5There were no Canadians in this event. Men's K120 Individual Kazuyoshi Funaki of Japan won the gold in the exciting 120 metre individual event. Funaki jumped 132.5 in his final jump. He scored perfect style marks and finished with 272.3 points. Japan's Masahiko Harada was fifth after the first round but jumped so incredibly far on his second jump that there were no measuring lines at where he landed! There was no score up in the scoreboard as a result. The competition continued with Funaki's jump. Then, Finland's Jani Soininen jumped 126.5 for a total of 260.8 with a great jump. Everyone thought Harada was surely ahead of Soininen. After Soininen, Japan's Takanobu Okabe came up with a poor jump to finish sixth. Finally, the first round leader Andreas Widhoelzl of Austria jumped only 120.5 for fourth place. Everyone thought Funaki won the gold, Harada with silver, and Soininen with bronze and the 30 000 Japanese fans went wild. In the medal ceremony, Harada walked up to the silver medal position thinking he was ahead of Soininen, who stood in the bronze position. But Harada's manually measured final jump was finally announced as an Olympic record 136 metres. However, he had only modest style marks for 258.3 points. It was good enough only for the bronze behind Soininen. Men's K120 Individual Final Results PLACE ATHLETE COUNTRY POINTS ===== ======= ======= ====== 1 Kazuyoshi Funaki Japan 272.3 2 Jani Soininen Finland 260.8 3 Masahiko Harada Japan 258.3 4 Andreas Widhoelzl Austria 258.2 5 Primoz Peterka Slovenia 251.1There were no Canadians in this event. Men's K120 Team The Japanese team of Takanobu Okabe, Hiroya Saito, Masahiko Harada, and Kazuyoki Funaki won the team gold with a combined 933.0 points. Germany was second with 897.4 and Austria won the bronze with 881.5 points. In the first round, Harada only jumped 79.5 metres in difficult wind conditions. Japan was fourth after Austria, Germany, and Norway. Okabe broke Harada's Olympic record with a jump of 137 metres in the second round. German Martin Schmitt answered with 126.5 but Japan's Saito replied with 124 metres for a 5.2 point lead over the Germans. Next up for Japan was Harada. He jumped once again past the measuring lines and tied Okabu's Olympic record of 137 points. This increased Japan's lead to 25 points. Austria's Andreas Widhoelzl jumped 136.5 metres to win Austria a bronze. German Dieter Thoma jumped only 120 metres for the silver and Funaki finished it off for Japan with 125. Men's K120 Team Final Results PLACE COUNTRY POINTS ===== ======= ====== 1 Team Japan 933.0 2 Team Germany 897.4 3 Team Austria 881.5 4 Team Norway 870.6 5 Team Finland 833.8There was no Canadians team in this event. 
02/11/98 K90 Individual, Kazuyoshi Funaki (JPN) - silver 
02/11/98 K90 Individual Jani Soininen (FIN) - gold Back to Main |
