Just 51 athletes from eight nations were due to compete for 50 places, but qualification was a formality when Russian Ilya Mankov did not start.

Slovenian Tilen Bartol and Austrian Jan Hörl were also disqualified - skispringen.com reports that was for wearing the wrong suit.

It means 48 competitors will go through to tomorrow’s competition, with Eisenbichler the favourite to clinch a third victory of the young season.

The German, who won in Polish town Wisla and Finnish resort Ruka, topped qualification in Nizhny Tagil with a jump of 135 metres to record 138.1 points.

Norway's Halvor Egner Granerud, who denied Eisenbichler a third successive title with victory in the second event in Ruka, appears to be his greatest threat as he came second with a leap of 131.5m to register 135.8 points.

Third place went to Daniel Huber of Austria with 130.2 while Japan’s Yukiya Satō, who won in Nizhny Tagil last year, came fourth with 125.2.

Norwegian duo Marius Lindvik and Robert Johansson qualified in fifth and sixth respectively.

There were also top-10 finishes for Slovenians Timi Zajc and Anže Lanišek, Aleksander Zniszczoł of Poland and Austrian Manuel Fettner.

Germany’s Karl Geiger, who came second in Wisla and second in the overall FIS Ski Jumping World Cup standings last season, is not competing in Russia as his wife is expecting their first child.

Austria's crystal globe holder Stefan Kraft is also absent after a positive COVID-19 test last month, while there are no athletes from the Czech Republic due to a coronavirus outbreak.

The first individual event is scheduled to take place tomorrow, followed by another on Sunday (December 6).