Sapporo, Japan (Sunday, January 25, 2004) - Todd Lodwick (Steamboat Springs, CO) moved up 12 places during the two rounds of jumping Sunday to finish tied for fifth in a nordic combined World Cup meet won by Finn Hannu Manninen, who edged teammate Samppa Lajunen by .2 and took over the World Cup points lead with his fourth win of the season. Johnny Spillane (also Steamboat) was 23rd and Carl Van Loan (Webster, NH) finished 30th.

Lodwick, 17th in the 10K race, was third best in the 120-meter jumping to advance to his fifth top-5 of the winter as he tied former World Cup champion Felix Gottwald of Austria. Spillane was 19th in the race while Van Loan, in arguably the best race of his World Cup career, was 12th fastest but slid in the jumping phase.

The mass start reverses the traditional nordic combined format of jumping, then ski racing. Athletes race over a 10K course, then face two rounds of jumping. The field is pared to the top 30 after the first round.