Ryōyū Kobayashi topped qualifying and went on to win the first World Cup in the doubleheader ©Getty Images

Ryōyū Kobayashi returned to the top of the podium in the first of back-to-back Ski Jumping World Cup contests on the large hill in Ruka.

Kobayashi produced the longest and highest-scoring jump of the day in round two to move to the top of the standings.

The Japanese athlete jumped 143.0 metres - scoring 165.9 points - to overtake Anže Lanišek.

Slovenia's Lanišek jumped 141.0m at the first time of asking, scoring 160.0 points, to lead Kobayashi by 1.2.

But a second-jump score of 158.9 had Lanišek trailing in Kobayashi's slipstream.

Germany's Markus Eisenbichler, a former world champion on the large hill, was a distant third and 20.1 points adrift of Kobayashi.

Austria's Stephan Kraft was fourth and another German, Karl Geiger, completed the top five.

It means Geiger remains the overall World Cup leader, on 225 points, while Kobayashi is up to 180 and second place.

Ruka has been a happy hunting ground for Kobayashi - he won two World Cup legs here in 2018 - and Kobayashi has a chance to do it all again tomorrow, when the Finnish venue holds the second of back-to-back competitions.