Lindsey Van was best in Rovaniemi’s official training. Russian and Finnish team show up with new competitors. German team is unable to jump, as their luggage is missing.
Tomorrow the inaugural competition of the 2010/2011 Continental Cup will be held in Rovaniemi. It is planned to hold 23 competitions at 12 venues till March. Highlight of the season will be the World Championships in Oslo at the end of February for sure.
Lindsey Van best in official training
Today two official training rounds were held on the K90 hill. Best was America’s Lindsey Van with a jump on 90.5 meters in the second training round. As Van only jumped 79.5 in the first, her team-mate Jessica Jerome (86.0 and 89.0 m) and Austria’s Jacqueline Seifriedsberger (89.0 and 87.5 m) were the most constant jumpers of this training. Norway’s Line Jahr (87.5 m) and Austria’s Daniela Iraschko (89.5 m) had good jumps in one of the training rounds, but had a little weaker jump in the other one.
Best Italian today was Lisa Demetz (86.0 and 85.0 m). The Italian team for Rovaniemi and the next CoC in Vikersund consists only of four jumpers: Demetz, Elena Runggaldier, Roberta D’Agostina and Evelyn Insam. It is planned, that Simona Senoner and Barbara Stuffer will reinforce the team in Notodden.
The youngest Slovenian, Urša Bogataj, was best of her team with a jump on 84.0 meters in the second round. The two competitors from the Czech Republic, Michaela Dolezelova (71.0 and 74.0 m) and Vladena Pustkova (72.5 and 71.0 m), both performed solidly, as well as the only Swiss competitor Bigna Windmüller (70.0 and 75.0 m).
Debutants in the Russian and Finnish team
The Russian team showed up with two young jumpers, Sofya Tikhonova and Alexandra Kustova, that both will give their debut in an international competition tomorrow. Also Finland’s Sanni Tuomisto will compete for the first time in the Continental Cup.
The French, the Dutch and the Japanese team are not competing in Rovaniemi.
German team without luggage
Bad luck had the German team. As their luggage was lost at the flight to Rovaniemi, none of the fife-member team was able to jump in the trainings. It is still doubtful, that their luggage will arrive before tomorrow’s competition. If not, they will also have to skip the competition.
Already in the last week, many other teams had to go a long way round to get to Rovaniemi at all, as many flights from Helsinki were canceled due to a strike at Finnair, Finland’s largest airline.