Russia's Anastasiya Barannikova won the qualification for the FIS Grand Prix in Courchevel (FRA) with a jump on 97.5 m and a total of 109.4 points.
The second place went to Kaori Iwabuchi of Japan, who jumped on 95.5 m and scored 106.7 points. Italian Evelyn Insam convinced in third with a jump on 94 m and 102.5 points.
Behind Slovenia's Ursa Bogataj (4th), only 15-year-old Kinga Rajda of Poland surprised in fifth. Taylor Henrich of Canada finished sixth, closely followed by Sabrina Windmueller of Switzerland (7th) and Czech Barbora Blazkova (8.).
The Top 10 on the HS 96 were completed by local hero Julia Clair and Tara Geraghty-Moats of the USA.
Iraschko-Stolz and Seifriedsberger out with injury
The by far longest jump of the already pre-qualified athletes was shown by Austrian Chiara Hoelzl with 96 m. With this performance she raised the hopes of a top result in the GP opener for Austria, even though their top athletes Daniela Iraschko-Stolz and Jacqueline Seifriedsberger are not competing in Courchevel.
Seifriedsberger is forced to take a break for two weeks due to a cut on her knee, Iraschko-Stolz suffered a knee injury and will not be able to jump until early September.
Overall World Cup winner Sara Takanashi showed a convincing performance in the official training earlier today with 101.5 m, in the qualification round she started from a lower gate and landed already at 81.5 m.
The ladies' competition in Courchevel will take place on Saturday at 10:00 am CET.
Source: fis-ski.com
