Japan's Akito Watabe celebrates adding the second part of the Seefeld Triple in Nordic Combined to the opening leg he won on Friday. One more tomorrow gives him the clean sweep....©Getty Images

Japan's Akito Watabe stands on the brink of an awesome hat-trick in the International Ski Federation Nordic Combined World Cup after adding a second-leg win to his opening victory in the Seefeld Triple in Austria.

Another performance of this nature tomorrow will leave the Sochi 2014 Olympic silver medallist looking an even stronger favourite to go one better at Pyeongchang 2018.

While the race following yesterday's jumping was just five kilometres long, today’s was 10km – and tomorrow’s will be 15km.

Watabe’s performance in the jump, which he won with 106 metres, earned scores of 19, 19, 19, 19 and 19.5, giving him a total of 140.5 points that meant he started the 10km race with a 25 second lead over Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber.

In a class of his own - Japan's Akito Watabe finished more than a minute clear as he added the second leg of the Seefeld Triple in Nordic Combined to the first he had won on the previous day ©Getty Images
In a class of his own - Japan's Akito Watabe finished more than a minute clear as he added the second leg of the Seefeld Triple in Nordic Combined to the first he had won on the previous day ©Getty Images

But Riiber was pushed down to third place by a margin of three seconds after young German Vinzenz Geiger, seventh in the jump, produced a surging final effort that earned him a career best World Cup performance and fully justified his Olympic selection.

Riiber in turn managed to stay clear of teammates Jan Schmid – the World Cup leader - and Espen Andersen, as well as Fabian Riessle of Germany.

Riessle had finished third in the jumping with 99.5m but lost his podium place on the country.

The race was a lonely affair for Watabe, who finished more than a minute clear.