Olympic veteran Masahiko Harada took time away from the prestigious Four Hills ski jumping competition in Austria this week to return to Japan and win his first national championship title in nine years at the Snow Brand Cup meet Sunday.
Harada, who jumps for the Snow Brand team, posted jumps of 90 and 92 meters on the K-90 Miyanomori Hill in Sapporo for 240.5 points and a comfortable win over Masayuki Sato and Naoki Yasuzaki.
The popular 32-year-old jumper from Sapporo, third in the first leg of the Four Hills competition in Germany on Dec. 30, added a star quality to the meet sponsored by Snow Brand, which is struggling to recover from last summer's food-poisoning scandal.