Jin’ya Nishikata
Jin'ya Nishikata (Japanese西方 仁 也, Nishikata Jin'ya; born December 4, 1968 in Nozawa Onsen) is a former Japanese ski jumper.
Career
His first World Cup competition had Nishikata in 1988 at the Four Hills Tournament. But he failed to qualify for the main competition of the best 50 jumpers at all four competitions. On his next assignment with the World Cup, he had to wait 5 years. Only in the 1992/93 season he was once again the Japanese World Cup team. He could equal place at the season opener at the competition in Falun and Ruhpolding in the top ten, this performance but not confirmed in the course of the season. This, however, he succeeded in the following season. At the World Cup in Courchevel Nishikata finished behind Andreas Goldberger second place. In domestic Sapporo he could fight for third place with another podium finish. Overall, he was able to in the season eight times in the top ten place and finished third in the overall World Cup eighth place. At the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, he won the Japanese team silver behind the German team. In the individual competitions he took eighth place respectively.
For the 1994/95 season Nishikata started the season with poor results, but could be increased during the winter. In the Nordic World Ski Championships 1995 in Thunder Bay, he won the bronze medal with the team. From the normal hill he could occupy the seventh place. In 1996 he came second behind Janne Ahonen in the season opener in Lillehammer. In Engelberg, he was able to repeat this result. In that year he scored with eighth place also his best result at the Four Hills Tournament. In the Ski Flying World Championships in Bad Mitterndorf he finished tenth.
In the following years, he could not confirm these benefits and has been rarely used in the World Cup. On 28 January 2001 he played at the World Cup in Sapporo his last competition.