Sarah Hendrickson and Sara Takanashi performed best in the official training in Ljubno today.
The World Cup continues that weekend in Ljubno, Slovenia. The organizers here made a really large campaign to promote this event, and so it was not surprising that already at the official training today some hundred fans supported the jumpers by their cheering. In the afternoon three official training rounds were held. During the first round it was still slightly snowing, but later on the snowfall stopped. There was a little bit of headwind most of the time, so the conditions allowed for some very nice and far jumps on the K85 hill today.
In the first training round Norway’s Anette Sagen jumped on 87.5 meters. That was non only the best jump of the round, but also her best try on that day – in the two following rounds she only jumped 76.5 and 73 meters. In that first round the wind was still a little inconsistent, so the wind compensation rule altered the result a little. Japan’s Sara Takanashi jumped the same distance as Sagen, but only took the third round rank, while a jump on 82.0 meters was enough for World Cup leader Sarah Hendrickson (USA) to take the second rank.
In the second round Hendrickson jumped 91.0 meters – the farthest jump of the day. Second of the round came Slovenia’s Katja Pozun with a jump on 85.5 meters. She then skipped the third training round. Austria’s Daniela Iraschko, only 6th in the first round, took the third rank of the round with a jump on 84.5 meters, she had only 0.1 points more then Takanashi, who jumped 83.5 meters.
In the third round there was a little less headwind, so the average distance of the jumps was a little lower again. Hendrickson was again best of all with a jump on 85.5 meters. Takanashi jumped a little further (86.5 m), but had slightly more headwind and so lost more points to the wind compensation rule. With a 84.5 meter jump Iraschko was third in that round.
Also the Chinese team has come to Ljubno to participate in their first World Cup competitions. Especially Tong Ma seems to be in the shape to have chances to see the second round. She jumped 72.5, 70.0 and 72.5 meters today.
Iraschko needs victories in both competitions that weekend, if she wants to keep a chance to catch Hendrickson up in the overall World Cup. But after this training, it looks like three jumpers will fight for the win tomorrow. Also local hero Pozun will most likely play an important role in the competitions.
>>Schedule and additional information
Full training results can be found here:
http://www.fis-ski.com/pdf/2012/JP/3189/2012JP3189RLT.pdf