Sara Takanashi won the first individual competition of the FIS Ski Jumping Ladies World Cup in Almaty. The Japanese overall World Cup winner showed the best jumps of today with 101,0 and 103,0 metres and overall 252,6 points. Takanashi could stay ahead of the two Austrians Daniela Iraschko-Stolz and Jaqueline Seifriedsberger,
Takanashi: ”Thank you to everyone here. I have been here with the Grand Prix before, but this was the first winter competition in Kazakhstan. I was a little worried, because of the conditions of the hill, but thankfully I could do a good landing. I would like to say thank you to all the workers here and I hope, that I can come back to Almaty. I really enjoyed it here.”
Daniela Iraschko-Stolz jumped to 97,0 and 100,5 metres and 245,3 points, after the trial round had to be cancelled to save the inrun track from the warm temperatures. The Austrian: ”My impressions of Almaty are very positive. It´s my first time here and I am thankful, that we could jump a Ladies World Cup here. It´s really warm here, but I like that.”
Her team mate Jaqueline Seifriedsberger finished on the podium for the third time this season with jumps to 98,5 and 99,0 metres and overall 239,2 points. Seifriedsberger commented her podium: “I am very happy about my podium. It was a nice competition and the conditions were nearly perfect. The inrun track was a little bit too wet, but nevertheless I enjoyed jumping here. It was already amazing last summer.” She was followed by Maja Vtic by 3,5 points and with 94,5 and 98,0 metres, who had to be satisfied with finishing fourth after her three podiums in a row before. The new Junior World Champion Chiara Hölzl finished fifth with 97,0 and 99,0 metres and 234,7 points. Irina Avvakumova was the best Russian athlete once again, finishing sixth with 231,2 points. She was followed by Norway´s Maren Lundby by only 0,2 points in place seven. Nita Englund was happy about her eight place and 225,7 points and another top result for the US-team. Juliane Seyfarth underlined her new position as No. 1 in the German team and finished ninth with 224,5 points. The Slovene Eva Logar, with 223,1 points, completed the top ten. The US-American Tara Geragthy-Moats could be satisfied with the best result of the season so far, finishing 11th. Spela Rogelj completed the strong performance of the Slovenian team with her 12th place. World Champion Carina Vogt missed another top result and finished 13th. Taylor Henrich stayed ahead of the best Italian Elena Runggaldier. The Canadian finished 14th. The Finn Julia Kykkännen stayed ahead of Kaori Iwabuchi. Iwabuchi finished 18th and was second best Japanese, while her team mate Yuki Ito missed the cut. Julia Clair was the best French athlete again, finishing 20th and the Italian Evelyn Insam could collect some World Cup points, after her disappointing last results.
The second individual competition in Almaty starts on Sunday 10 am (CET).
Source: fis-ski.com
