Germany's Richard Freitag moved from eighth to first to secure his first win since 2015 ©Getty Images

Germany's Richard Freitag secured his first International Ski Federation Ski Jumping World Cup victory since January 2015 as he recovered from eighth in his opening round jump to top the pile in Nizhny Tagil.

Freitag's hopes of taking home the gold medal suffered a blow after a disappointing first round jump of 135m but he recovered admirably with a leap of 137 metres to finish on a total of 267.5 points.

Daniel Andre Tande of Norway earned silver as jumps of 141m and 134m helped him score an overall 266.9, 0.8 adrift of the victorious German.

Tande's compatriot Johann Andre Forfang jumped a huge 141.5m in the second round to complement an opening effort of 129m, which saw him end with 264.3 points.

"In the first round I had some problems with the landing and it's so close in the World Cup right now that you need every point you can get," said Freitag. 

Katharina Althaus won the second round of the event in Lillehammer on a dominant day for Germany ©Getty Images
Katharina Althaus won the second round of the event in Lillehammer on a dominant day for Germany ©Getty Images

"Then I just wanted to do my best again in the second round and I had a really good jump.

"I'm really happy that I can wear the yellow bib for the first time now and I'll definitely fight to defend it in the next competitions."

There was also a German winner of the women's event in Lillehammer as Katharina Althaus sealed victory on a total of 271.7 points.

It came thanks to jumps of 98.5m and 93.0m as she finished ahead of home favourite Maren Lundby by 4.4 points.

The Norwegian produced leaps of 98.5m and 92.5m to clinch the silver medal, while bronze was claimed by Japan's Yuki Ito.

The Japanese jumped 95m and 88m to round off the podium on 249.2 points.

Both events are scheduled to continue tomorrow.