Soininen Can Jump for Joy Now

With the emperor’s son and a crowd of 65,000 expectant fans watching, Masahiko Harada squandered his chance of glory for the second Olympics in a row.

Jani Soininen won the 90-meter ski jump gold medal in an unexpected triumph for Finland on what had looked like a perfect day for the Japanese.

In windless conditions under blue skies Tuesday, Soininen came up with a jump of 89 meters in the second round for a total score of 234.5.

Going last, Harada, who led the first round with marks of 121, needed nothing special to win the gold. After pausing for a minute on the takeoff slope, he came up with a poor jump of 84.5 meters.

His right ski wobbled in flight and he struggled to maintain stability in the air. He came up with a total score of 228.5, good enough only for fifth place.

While Harada, the large-hill world champion last year, came up with a wry smile of accepted defeat before a stunned crowd, a joyful Soininen was hoisted into the air by countryman Janne Ahonen, who placed fourth.

“I couldn’t score as much as I expected,” Harada said. “I was relaxed, but maybe I became nervous, but I am disappointed because my target was to win the gold.”

Japan at least won the silver medal. Kazuyoshi Funaki, who won the Four Hills competition in December and January, made a second-round leap of 90.5 for a total of 233.5.

Austria’s Andreas Widhoelzl won the bronze ahead of Janne Ahonen of Finland after a leap of 90.5 gave him a total score of 232.5. Ahonen had 231.5 after the best leap of the second round, 91.5 meters.

Harada said he would now try to concentrate on the 120-meter competition.

“How disappointing was it? Well, I’ll try to make it in the large hill,” he said.

For four years, Harada has carried the burden of failure after an incredible collapse on the final jump at the Lillehammer Olympics cost his country the gold medal in the 120-meter team competition.

His country was in position to claim the team gold at Lillehammer, needing only one final routine jump from Harada, the world champion. His first jump had been 122 meters, well beyond the 105 he needed to clinch the gold.

As Harada prepared for the clinching jump, Jens Weissflog of Germany, the 120-meter gold medalist, congratulated him on the obvious Japanese victory. In an instant, however, that gold turned to silver when Harada took off too early and produced the shortest jump in the competition, a mere 97.5 meters.

Harada blamed only himself, and it affected him for two years. He did not begin to regain his form until 1996, but by last year he was the world champion at 120 meters and second at 90 meters.

Before Tuesday’s second round started, the omens for a repeat of the 1972 Japanese sweep at the Sapporo Olympics were good. Even the 1972 gold medalist, Yukio Kasaya, was one of the five judges, although his scoring appeared immaculately fair.

And, with three Japanese in the top five from the first round, the sweep looked a strong possibility.

But the large crowd of flag-waving Japanese was left to cheer only a silver-medal finish.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

MEDALISTS

Ski Jumping: Men’s 90-meter

Gold: Jani Soininen

Silver: Kazuyoshi Funaki, Japan

Bronze: Andreas Widhoelzl, Austria