Japan's Akito Watabe was in the hunt after a lap of the race Friday but could not close the gap on the leaders, finishing sixth at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Austria.

Germany's Eric Frenzel won gold after leading all jumpers with 138.5 points in the men's individual Gundersen large hill event.

He finished the race 4.3 seconds ahead of silver medalist Jan Schmid of Norway, while local favorite Franz-Josef Rehrl took bronze after crossing the line 8.7 seconds behind Frenzel.

The 30-year-old Watabe started the race fifth, 38 seconds behind back-to-back Olympic champion Frenzel, after earning 129.0 points for the jump. He narrowed the gap to 22 seconds after the first lap, but that would remain the final margin between him and the eventual winner.

"I wasn't able to perform as I had planned. I felt I needed to be within 10 seconds of the lead by halfway to have a chance of a medal," Watabe said.

Among other Japanese, Watabe's younger brother Yoshito finished 16th, 1:31.7 off the pace, while Hideaki Nagai was a further 10.2 seconds back in 17th. Go Yamamoto finished 26th, 2:48.6 behind the winner.