Vik’s Jump Silences Loud Partisan Crowd

The fans came by the thousands hoping for a long-awaited Japanese ski jump triumph. They wound up amazed by a monster leap by a Norwegian.

Bjarte Engen Vik silenced the cheers of the crowd of about 35,000 with a jump of 94.5 meters to take the halfway lead in the Nordic combined Friday at Hakuba.

That leap dwarfed the best jump in Wednesday’s individual 90-meter competition off the same hill by three meters and knocked a Japanese jumper out of first place.

“The result is better than I hoped for in dreams,” Vik said. “I knew I could do well in the jumps, but to win the jumping here is very good.”

Jumping next to last after Tsugiharu Ogiwara and Junichi Kogawa had put Japan in the first two positions, Vik came up with the biggest leap of the day for a competition total of 241 points going into Saturday’s 15-kilometer cross-country race.

The leading American was Todd Lodwick of Steamboat Springs, Colo., who placed 13th with jumps of 82.5 and 89 meters. With 217 points, he will start 2:24 behind Vik in the cross-country.

Bill Demong, a 17-year-old from Saranac Lake, N.Y., was eighth after a first-round jump of 87.5. But he came up with only 82 in the second round and slipped down to 19th with 208.5 points and 3:15 to make up on the leader.