Damjan leads Slovenia's top-3 ski jumping clean sweep

Jernej Damjan lifted his first ski-jumping World Cup in Sapporo on Sunday, leading a clean sweep of the top three places for Slovenia, with many big names staying away just two weeks from the Sochi Olympics. The 30-year-old veteran jumped 138 and 134 metres (452 and 439 feet) to collect 255.0 points, followed by Peter Prevc on 254.4 points with jumps of 124 and and 137.5 metres. Robert Kranjec finished third on 253.3 after leaping 126 and 137 metres. Austrian Andreas Kofler leapt the day's longest distance of 140 metres in the first round and finished fifth on 246.9 points. "Of course I'm more than happy," Damjan said. "I've waited a long time for this to happen." "I had some luck with the wind today and I took advantage of it." Prevc, 21, who beat Damjan to win Saturday's title on the same Okurayama hill, increased his overall lead on the World-Cup leaderboard to 812 points after 19 events. Poland's Kamil Stoch and Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer remained in second and third spots on 721 and 670 points. They were among eight of 10 World Cup leaders who shunned the trip to Sapporo to focus on tuning for Sochi. Results: 1. Jernej Damjan (SLO) 255.0 pts (138-134m), 2. Peter Prevc (SLO) 254.4 (124-137.5), 3. Robert Kranjec (SLO) 253.3 (126-137), 4. Michael Neumayer (GER) 249.8 (133.5-134), 5. Andreas Kofler (AUT) 246.9 (140-130), 6.  Noriaki Kasai (JPN) 245.2 (123.5-133), 7. Jan Matura (CZE) 243.0 (131.5-127), 8. Markus Eisenbichler (GER) 241.3 (130-132.5), 9. Nejc Dezman (SLO) 236.3 (131-129), 10. Daiki Ito (JPN) 230.1 (128.5-125) World Cup standings (after 19 of 28 rounds): 1. Peter Prevc (SLO) 812 pts, 2. Kamil Stoch (POL) 721, 3. Gregor Schlierenzauer (AUT) 670, 4.  Noriaki Kasai (JPN) 646,  5. Simon Ammann (SUI) 608, 6. Anders Bardal (NOR) 598 Source: AFP