Having claimed the prestigious Four Hills tournament title for the first time his career earlier this month, the Ski Jumping World Cup leader was vying to add another gold medal to his impressive resume.

He began the second day of competition lying behind Norway’s Kenneth Gangnes, despite having produced a hill record with an effort of 243 metres in the first of his two attempts.

However, he proved able to better that effort by a further metre today to catapult him to the top of the standings on 640.1 points.

It followed Gangnes only being able to achieve a distance of 238.5m in the third round, with his total of 636.8 points seeing him lying in second position.

The Norwegian was left frustrated after wind conditions at the venue forced the officials to cancel the fourth round of competition, which ensured that Prevc became the first Slovenian since Robert Kranjec in 2012 to win the title.

A fall prevented Johann Andre Forfang from joining Gangnes on the podium, with the Norwegian eventually ending fourth on 602 points.

It followed home favourite Stefan Kraft producing a third round jump of 226.5m to end on 629.2 points, with that performance placing the Austrian on the podium in third.

There was disappointment for the 2014 winner Severin Freund, as the German finished sixth at the biennial event which sees the world's best ski jumpers utilise a special ramp which allows them to achieve even greater heights and distances.

Competition had been overshadowed, however, by an injury to Austria's Lukas Mueller, who fell during practice.

The 23-year-old injured his spine and is currently unable to move his legs, but a final prognosis is as yet unavailable.

Meanwhile, in the women’s Ski Jumping World Cup, Sara Takanashi strengthened her position as the overall leader by claiming gold in front of a home crowd in Sapporo.

The Japanese jumper produced efforts of 97m and 98m during the two rounds to end on a total of 265.6 points.

It saw her finish comfortably clear of Slovenia’s Ema Klinec and Austria’s Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, who finished on 241.3 and 234.5 respectively.

Takanashi’s win saw her move onto 300 points in the overall standings, with Iraschko-Stolz lying some way adrift on 239 in second.

Another women's World Cup event will take place in Sapporo tomorrow.

The men's season will resume in Zakopane in Poland on January 24.