Sarah Hendrickson won the final competition of this World Cup season on the large hill in Oslo ahead of Sara Takanashi and Jacqueline Seifriedsberger.
The second World Cup season in the history of our young sports is over – and it ended with a really great final. For the first time ever a Ladies World Cup was held on a large jumping hill. The “mighty” Holmenkollen hill in Oslo (K120, HS134) was chosen for this premiere. About 25.000 fans, among them the Norwegian King, made it to the hill to see this competition, that was held together with the Mens World Cup.
It was a very close fight between World Cup overall winner Sara Takanashi from Japan and World Champion Sarah Hendrickson from the United States in this final competition. In the end there were only 2 points between the two predominant jumpers of this winter. Takanashi jumped 134.0 and 133.5 meters and so in both rounds slightly further than Hendrickson, who jumped 133.5 and 129.0 meters. But Hendrickson made at both jumps telemark landings and so scored clearly more style points as Takanashi, who landed two-footed. In the end these points by the judges turned the balance for Hendrickson to take victory, while Takanashi had to be content with the second place. “It was a huge honour to jump together with the men in the big hill and in front of so many people. I can still hardly put it into words. I love ski jumping more and more each day and will remember this day for a long time,” said Hendrickson. Takanashi already thought about the next year: “I had two very good jumps today but my telemarks are not that good at the moment. I will try to improve that for the next season.”
Jacqueline Seifriedsberger came third behind the two Sara(h)s, showing a pair of jumps of 123.5 and 125.5 meters. It’s the third time in a row that she takes the third place, so the podium pictures of today, and of the World Championships in Val di Fiemme and of the World Cup on the day before yesterday in Trondheim might look pretty similar. “I love ski jumping and it was working quite well for me this season. I didn’t do anything special before it, just some mental and physical training but it turned out quite nicely. The two Sarahs are jumping pretty well and it’s hard work to get up on this kind of level but if I train well and do my best, maybe it will work until Sochi,” she said
On the forth place followed Coline Mattel from France with jumps of 120.5 and 124.0 meters. Fifth came Italy’s Elena Runggaldier (124.5 and 116.5 m) ahead of Germany’s Carina Vogt (124.0 and 122.5). The “veterans” Lindsey Van from America (122.5 and 118.0) and Anette Sagen from Norway (119.0 and 123.5 m) followed on places seven and eight, separated by only 0.1 points.
It was a short moment of shock, when Slovenia’s Anja Tepes fell in the second round right after landing an 114.5 meter jump. Obviously she seemed to have a pain in her knee, after receiving first aid she was carried out of the stadium. At the moment she is getting examined, Ladies-Skijumping.com will report as soon as we know more about the diagnosis.
WORLD CUP CRYSTAL GLOBE FOR TAKANASHI
Already since the World Cup in Ljubno Takanashi was fixed as winner of the overall World Cup. After the competition she received the Crystal Globe for this victory. In total she scored 1297 points and won eight individual competitions. Hendrickson, who came second in this ranking with 1047 points and four wins. Mattel is third with two wins and 823 points. The Nations Cup was taken by the USA with 2260 points ahead of Slovenia with 2041 points and Japan with 1930 points.
EDITOR’S COMMENTARY:
Holding a Ladies World Cup on a large hill was for sure an experiment. But now, as it is over, we can say that it was highly successful. The show of the Sara(h)s was simply extraordinary. Of course there was a large gap between the first and the last jumpers and yes – many jumpers had no chance to reach the K-point. So for sure there is still room for improvement. But one just has to keep in mind, that the ladies barely ever do training on such big hills. If there would be more large hill competitions this would rapidly change and the differences would rapidly get smaller. The improvement from yesterday’s official training to today’s competition is just the best proof for that. The girls are ready for the large hills! The fall of Tepes could have happened also on a smaller hill and so does not change this fact.
RESULTS AND STANDINGS:
Results after the 1st round »
Final results of the competition »
Final overall World Cup standings »
Updated 2013-03-17 18:38:00