Sara Takanashi best in official training, Katja Pozun won qualification.
The Ladies World Cup continues this weekend in Schonach, after a two-week Christmas break. As usual here in Schonach, the competitions are hosted together by the Ski Clubs of Schonach and Schönwald, a neighboring town that abandoned it’s own K85 jumping hills some years ago and since uses the K95 in Schonach for its jumping events.
There were mild temperatures during the last weeks in Schonach, so there is now snow around and the whole landscape around is green. Nevertheless the organizers managed to prepare the hill perfectly, as well as the cross-country tracks, that are needed for the Nordic Combined World Cup that’s held here this weekend as well. Also today the weather conditions were not the best ones here and so the official training and the qualification for tomorrow’s competition were held while mist and drizzle took turns. The good thing about these weather conditions was, that the wind was calm all the time. So the abut 200 spectators, that had came to the hill to watch the qualification saw a pretty fair jumping.
Takanashi best in official training
Best in both training rounds was World Cup leader Sara Takanashi from Japan with jumps of 91.5 and 96.5 meters. Just slightly behind her was Austria’s Daniela Iraschko with jumps of 89.5 and 94.5 meters. In the first training round Evelyn Insam from Italy was third with a nice 91.0 meter jump, her 90.5 meters in the second round helped her to take the fourth place then. Third in the second round was Norway’s Anette Sagen with a 92.5 meter jump, before she jumped only 86.0 meters. To mention is also the performance of Germany’s Carina Vogt, after jumping 90.5 meters in the first, she skipped the second round.
Pozun wins qualification
Winner of the Qualification came Slovenia’s Katja Pozun with a jump of 91.0 meters, followed by America’s Abby Hughes (89.5 m). Third rank was shared in a tie by Svenja Würth from Germany (87.5 m) and Irina Avvakuva from Russia (88.0 m). Best prequalified jumper in this Qualification was Insam with a 97.5 meters. All prequalified athletes jumped over 90.0 meters, so we can expect again competitions on a very high level here.
The hosting nation Germany makes use of a National Group of competitors and so has a ten-strong team here in Schonach. All of them passed the qualification, so the spectators can look forward to see a good number of local athletes in tomorrow’s competition.
>> Schedule and additional information
FULL RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE:
http://www.fis-ski.com/pdf/2013/JP/3810/2013JP3810RLT.pdf (Training)
http://www.fis-ski.com/pdf/2013/JP/3810/2013JP3810RLQ.pdf (Qualification)