Freund celebrates back-to-back World Cup ski jumping wins

Germany's Severin Freund celebrated back-to-back World Cup wins on Friday with victory on the large hill at Lahti in Finland. Freund, 27, who won a gold medal in the team event at the Winter Olympics, clinched his seventh career win and moved into third place in the World Cup standings. He had also won in Falun in Sweden on Wednesday. Freund scored 276.6 points to finish ahead of Austria's Stefan Kraft (265.6 pts) while double Olympic champion Kamil Stoch of Poland took third place (259.8 pts). Slovenia's Peter Prevc was fourth and retains the overall World Cup lead with a seven-point edge over Stoch. Results: 1. Severin Freund (GER) 276.6 pts (131.0 - 127.5 m), 2. Stefan Kraft (AUT) 265.6 (125.0 - 134.0 m), 3. Kamil Stoch (POL) 259.8 (127.0 - 124.5 m), 4. Peter Prevc (SLO) 259.6 (125.5 - 123.5 m), 5. Anssi Koivuranta (FIN) 259.0 (128.5 - 126.5 m) World Cup standings (after 23 of 29 rounds): 1. Peter Prevc (SLO) 1038 pts, 2. Kamil Stoch (POL) 1031, 3. Severin Freund (GER) 827, 4. Noriaki Kasai (JPN) 806, 5. Gregor Schlierenzauer (AUT) 715 Source: AFP