Sarah Hendrickson won second World Cup in Ljubno ahead of Sara Takanashi and Jacqueline Seifriedsberger.
Sarah Hendrickson (USA) and Sara Takanashi (JPN) turned Sunday’s World Cup in Ljubno into a really thrilling and sweeping spectacle. Over 3000 spectators again had come to the hill, in the end they frenetically celebrated the two Sara(h)s, as well as the Slovenian team, that placed three jumpers in the final round today.
Already in the first round Hendrickson jumped on 91.5 meters and so set a new hill record. In the second round she even bettered that record with a terrific jump on 95.0 meters. “It was a wonderful competition”, was her comment – and actually this short sentence describes today’s competition best. For her second jump Hendrickson got very high style points by the judges, three times a 19.5 and twice a 19.0. Who knows? Maybe we will see the first 20.0 for a woman still this winter? “I am going to Predazzo now to train, then I will compete at the CoC in Liberec and at the Junior World Championships”, she said about her plans for the next weeks.
Also the performance of Takanashi was simply outstanding today. She made two very strong jumps on 90.0 and 90.5 meters and so also totally thrilled the spectators. “I am very pleased with my jumping today”, she said. Distant third behind Sarah and Sara came Austria’s Jacqueline Seifriedsberger with jumps on 87.0 and 84.5 meters. “I’m pretty happy that I made two good jumps today and I’m also happy that I made it to the podium”, she said.
Fourth came Germany’s Ulrike Grässler with jumps on 87.5 and 85.5 meters. It was her fourth 4th rank in a row. “For sure it is a little annoying at the first moment, especially because it was a again very close. But like always in the last competitions someone was ahead of me. But in some days I will be happy about this result. At the moment I’m happy that I took the third rank in the overall World Cup with that result”, she said to Ladies-Skijumping.com. Yesterday’s third Daniela Iraschko (AUT) came fifth today with jumps on 85 and 81.5 meters, Norway’s Anette Sagen came sixth (85.5 and 79.0 m).
The Chinese team, that attempted it’s first World Cup competition yesterday, did not compete today. They left Ljubno already yesterday in the evening because they had some problems with their equipment.
In the overall World Cup Hendrickson has now 789 points, second ranked Iraschko has 578 and so is over 200 points behind. The third rank is shared by Grässler and Lindsey Van (USA, 10th today). They have 360 points.
RESULTS AND STANDINGS:
Results after the 1st round »
Final results of the competition »
Current overall World Cup standings »
Current Nations Cup standings »