Sara Takanashi won the individual World Cup on Saturday in Lillehammer. Daniela Iraschko-Stolz and Gianina Ernst shared the second place.
The first individual World Cup competition of this winter, that was held today in Lillehammer, was simply the perfect “appetizer” for this Olympic season. The competition was nice and fair, and the performance level was in general extremely high. The fact, that 88 meters on that K90 hill were not enough to see the second round, seems to be the best prove for the sporting quality of the whole field.
Nevertheless Sara Takanashi from Japan, who won this competition, seemed to be a class of her own. She jumped 102.0 and 96.5 meters and so scored 16 points more than the jumpers on the second place. This is Takanashi’s tenth victory in an individual World Cup competition. Germany’s Gianina Ernst and Austria’s Daniela Iraschko-Stolz both scored 270.0 points and so shared the second place. Although this was the first competition for Iraschko-Stolz after her injury lay-off, her jumps of 102.5 and 94.5 meters were not surprising at all. But that Ernst, who turns 15 in a few weeks, and debuted in a World Cup here, was able to take this place is for sure a big surprise. But to be honest, it did not look like her pair of jumps of 97.5 and 97.0 meters happened randomly, so we can most likely expect more great performances by her in the future.
Also Ernst’s team mates jumped very well, and so in total three German jumpers were among the top six. Carina Vogt came fourth with jumps of 97. and 99.5 meters, Katharina Althaus sixth by jumping 98.0 meters twice. Breaking the German lines, Jacqueline Seifriedsberger from Austria came fifth with jumps of 98.0 and 100.5 meters.
Ema Klinec from Slovenia, who won the qualification in the morning, jumped 99.0 meters in the first round and so was third at half-time. In the second round she jumped only 93.5 meters and so fell finally back to the seventh place. Best jumper of the hosting nation Norway was Maren Lundby, who took the 12th place with a pair of jumps of 96.5 and 92.5 meters.
RESULTS AND STANDINGS:
Results after the 1st round »
Final results of the competition »
Current overall World Cup standings »