The venue was the scene of the men's normal hill competition at the 1972 Winter Olympics, where Japan enjoyed their only clean sweep of the podium of those Games.

Yukio Kasaya won the gold medal on that occasion with team-mates Akitsugu Konno and Seiji Aochi taking silver and bronze.

Their achievement was even more remarkable considering Japan had never previously won an Olympic medal in ski jumping.

Sato and Iwasa looked to follow in their compatriot’s ski tracks at the Asian Winter Games today, the latter leaping into a first round lead in the competition when he managed 98.50 metres.

It gave him a total of 131.5 points and a strong advantage over Iwasa, second on 121.5.

Sato preserved his lead to take gold as his second jump reaching 94.50m, giving him a winning total of 254 points.

An effort of 97.50m saw Iwasa close in but he ultimately ended up just short of winning the title, scoring 251 points overall.

The bronze was medal claimed by Kazakhstan’s Sergey Tkachenko, after he achieved two jumps of exactly 93.50m.

His consistency saw him secure a place on the podium with 238 points, with Japan’s Masamitsu Ito and South Korea’s Choi Seou ending fourth and fifth respectively.

Choi had been in the bronze medal position after the first round but his next jump of 86m was enough to maintain his position.

Two more ski jumping competitions are due to take place at Sapporo 2017, both held on the large hill at the Okurayama Ski Jump Stadium.

The men’s individual large hill event is scheduled to take place on Friday (February 24) before the team competition is held the following day.