The event was due to begin in Japan today with two training rounds and then a qualification round, but adverse weather conditions meant only one training round could go ahead.

Even that was conducted with "extreme difficulty", according to the FIS.

"The heavy snowfall caused problems with the in-run track, the track got slower and slower and in the end the hill crew was not able to get the new snow out of the track in order to ensure equal conditions for all of the athletes," they said in a statement.

Austria's Daniela Iraschko-Stolz attempted a jump but landed at the 55.5 metre mark, at which point Juliane Seyfarth from Germany, Norway's Maren Lundby and another German in Katharina Althaus chose not to jump.

As a result, qualifying will now take place at 3.45pm local time tomorrow.

When the event does finally get underway Olympic champion Lundby will be aiming to build on her triumph in Sapporo last weekend.

Lundby's victory helped her cut the deficit to current World Cup leader Althaus, who heads the standings with 530 points.

The Norwegian now has 438 and another win this weekend will see her further reduce the arrears.

Once tomorrow morning's qualification is over, the World Cup event itself is set to go ahead at 5pm local time.