Japanese skier Satoshi Mori had the longest jump of the first round Saturday and led jumping, giving him a two-second lead going into the cross-country phase of a two-day Nordic combined World Cup meet in Steamboat Springs, Colo.
Mori had jumps of 116 and 114.5 meter for 239.8 points and will start Sunday's 15-kilometer race two seconds in front of Alexei Fadeev of Russia. Fadeev had the longest jump of the second day of the Sprint Ski Town USA World Cup at Howelsen Hill, going 113.5 and 117.5 meters, good for 239.4 points.World Cup leader Hannu Manninen of Finland, a far stronger cross-country skier than Mori and Fadeev, was third and will start 17 seconds after Mori. He said Olympic champion Bjarte Engen Vik of Norway, who was sixth in jumping and will ski 37 seconds after Mori, is the man to watch in the 15K.
Mori led three Japanese skiers into the top five with Gen Tomii fourth and three-time World Cup champion Kenji Ogiwara fifth.
"I will try to ski my own race, at my pace, at not think of Manninen or anyone else," Mori said through an interpreter.
"I think I will catch them but Bjarte will be tough. I will prepare my tactic (race plan) tonight," Manninen said.
He edged Vik by a stride Thursday in a one-day sprint event and has won four of the five World Cup combined meets this season, finishing second to Vik in the other event.
LUGE: At Sigulda, Latvia, Christian Niccum and Matt McClain continued their domination of World Cup luge racing Saturday by winning their second event of the season and extending the overall lead.
The duo were part of a gold-silver effort for U.S. doubles teams as Olympic bronze-medal winners Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin took second in a repeat performance from the opening World Cup race at Igls, Austria.
MAIER WARNED: At Berlin, Austrian ski star Hermann Maier was told Saturday that he should cut any ties to a former East German doctor convicted recently of administering performance-enhancing drugs.
Peter Schroecksnadel, president of the Austrian Skiing Association and Maier's personal manager, told the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung that physiologist Bernd Pansold was hurting the sport.