Daito Takahashi kept Japan in the hunt for a medal in the Nordic combined team event Saturday, scoring with jumps of 94.5 and 94 meters to lift Japan to fourth place at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
The young Japanese anchor tallied 224.5 of Japan's 901 points in the jumping competition at Utah Olympic Park to keep Japan just six seconds behind the third-placed United States and 11 seconds in front of Germany for the start of Sunday's cross-country race.
Gen Tomii also put a pair of jumps over the K-point for 228 points, but former world champion Kenji Ogiwara could only manage a pair of 87-meter jumps and Satoshi Mori traveled a mere 85.5 meters on his second attempt.
Japan, the Olympic champion in Albertville and Lillehammer, will start the 4x5-km relay on the Soldier Hollow course 1 minute, 40 seconds behind leader Finland.
Samppa Lajunen, gold medalist in the individual event a week ago, nailed a pair of 96.5-meter jumps to give Finland 967.5 points and a lead of 44 seconds over Austria and 1:34 over the U.S.