Ryōyū Kobayashi claimed the first win in this season's Four Hills Tournament ©Getty Images

Japanese star Ryōyū Kobayashi started his Four Hills Tournament campaign in style with his fourth International Ski Federation (FIS) Ski Jumping World Cup victory of the season in Oberstdorf.

After the 23rd win of his career, Kobayashi leads the standings in the Four Hills Tournament, which started today before going on to legs in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, also in Germany, followed by Austrian legs in Innsbruck and Bischofshofen.

The World Cup champion from the 2018-2019 season held off the defending champion, Halvor Egner Granerud of Norway for the win with a total of 302.0 points.

It pushed the Japanese jumper into second in the overall standings, behind Karl Geiger of Germany, who finished fifth.

Joining Kobayashi and Granerud on the podium was another Norwegian, Robert Johansson, who marginally missed silver by 0.6 points.

Halvor Egner Granerud was second today in Oberstdorf ©Getty Images
Halvor Egner Granerud was second today in Oberstdorf ©Getty Images

A third Norwegian was fourth, Marius Lindvik, in front of Geiger.

Lovro Kos of Slovenia was sixth, in front of Germany's Markus Eisenbichler and Austrian Daniel Huber.

Stephan Leyhe was ninth on home soil and Gregor Deschwanden of Switzerland was 10th.

Germany will be hoping to have a ski jumper win the Four Hills Tournament for the first time since 2001-2002, when Sven Hannawald had a perfect record of winning all four events in the one season.

Competition continues with qualification in Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Friday (December 31).