Ryoyu Kobayashi on the verge of Four Hills history

The Japanese ski-jumper will head to Bischofshofen looking to follow in the footsteps of Sven Hannawald in 2001/02 and Kamil Stoch last year in winning all four events.

The 22-year-old is also within touching distance of claiming the first Four Hills crown of his career, with ten of the previous 11 ski-jumpers to win the first three events having gone on to win the title.

Kobayashi dominated throughout in Austria, scoring 137 points on his first jump to open up a lead of 11 points over Stefan Kraft.

He followed that up with his second jump managing 130 points to take his total to 267, 12.8 clear of the Austrian in second.

The pair were well clear of Andreas Stjernen of Norway who finished third while Markus Eisenbichler was 13th having finished second in each of the first two events.

The competition concludes in Bischofshofen on Sunday where Kobayashi will aim to complete the Grand Slam while following in the footsteps of Kazuyoshi Funaki in becoming only the second Japanese ski-jumper to win the Four Hills after he won the first three events back in 1997/98.