Austria's Stefan Kraft has topped qualifying for the first event in this season's Four Hills Tournament that starts in Oberstdorf tomorrow ©Getty Images

Stefan Kraft of Austria topped qualification at the first event of this year's Four Hills ski jumping tournament in Oberstdorf.

Kraft, one of the four favourites for the title, scored 152.2 points to qualify for tomorrow's competition in style.

Japan's Ryoyu Kobayashi, the overall Ski Jumping World Cup leader who became only the third man to win all four stages of the tournament last year, was fourth.

The event is the first of the stages on the Four Hills Tournament ©Twitter
The event is the first of the stages on the Four Hills Tournament ©Twitter

Kobayashi finished with a total of 147.6 points at the Schattenberg Ski Jump venue, where German organisers had been worried last week that mild temperatures and a strong southern wind might force the cancellation of the traditional starting point for the Tournament, which is set within the International Ski Federation World Cup programme.

Kobayashi’s elder brother Junshiro finished second with 149.6, 0.3 ahead of home jumper Stephan Leyhe.

Kraft won this leg of the Tournament in 2014-15 and 2016-17.

Karl Geiger of Germany was sixth on 145.0 but Poland's Kamil Stoch - who has three Olympic golds and became the second man to win all four stages of this event in 2017-2018 - was down in 22nd place on 130.1.