Daniela Iraschko won Saturday’s World Cup in Hinzenbach ahead of Sarah Hendrickson and Katja Pozun. Second round was cancelled after 27 jumpers.
After yesterday’s official training was held under calm conditions, the wind played it’s little game today again. While it was still calm at the beginning of the trial round, it became windy after a dozen of athletes had jumped. There was headwind then most of the time, but its force was varying a lot. The trial round was cancelled after about half of the jumpers. The first round was then held with some interruptions by the wind. During the second round the wind got stronger and stronger and especially the last 10 jumpers had to leave the bar more then once because the wind was simply too strong. As the wind did not calm down, finally the second round was cancelled, when only the three leaders after the first round were still waiting for their jump.
So, much for the joy of the about 2000 spectators, Austria’s Daniela Iraschko won the competition with her first round jump on 96.0 meters. “Celebrating my first World Cup victory in my homeland is perfect. Having all the fans here and hearing the national anthem here makes it very emotional for me. I love my country and I love that place”, she said.
Second came the American World Cup leader Sarah Henrickson with a jump on 91.5 meters. But as she got compensation points for starting with less inrun, she was only 0.7 points behind Iraschko. “It is hard to say from the top, if it was right to cancel, it’s hard to see the wind flags from there. But my coach told me, that there was much wind. The weather was not in my favour today”, she said and continued: “I am happy with that second place. The overall World Cup is still my goal, and that helped.”
Third came Slovenia’s Katja Pozun with a jump on 90.5 meters. “I am very surprised. This is my first winter and I did not think I can make it to the podium”, she said. Pozun had quit jumping after winning bronze at the 2008 Junior World Championships, but started a comeback last summer.
Fourth came Germany’s Ulrike Grässler with a jump on 88.5 meters. Norway’s Anette Sagen jumped the same distance and came fifth. The sixth rank was taken by Germany’s Carina Vogt who jumped on 84.0 meters.
With a jump on 83.5 meters Russia’s Irina Taktaeva came 14th today. Due to that all nations that are competing in the World Cup have scored points now. Three weeks ago in Predazzo Taktaeva still missed the second round by only 0.5 points.
In the overall World Cup Hendrickson has now 509 points. Second ranked Iraschko has 373 points. Pozun made a big step forward in this ranking and is now third with 243 points, she is only one point ahead of America’s Lindsey Van (7th today).
RESULTS AND STANDINGS:
Final results of the competition »
Current overall World Cup standings »
Current Nations Cup standings »