Daniela Iraschko-Stolz wins on Saturday in Planica ahead of Sara Takanashi and Carina Vogt.
A snow-covered landscape, blue sky, sunshine and temperatures about 0°. There were almost perfect conditions today in Planica for a ski jumping competition. Well, only almost, as there was a decent breeze of tailwind at the hill all the time that made it tough to jump really far today. The intensity of this wind did not change much, so all jumpers had to fight this difficulty in the same manner. Although the competition was moved to Planica from Ljubno short-dated, about 5000 spectators had made it to the hill. Next to flags they also carried a lot of musical instruments, such as accordions or bells, and so created a simply awesome atmosphere there. Winner in front of this great scene came Austria’s Daniela Iraschko-Stolz.
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fot. Stefan Diaz
Iraschko-Stolz won the competition with two really nice jumps of 100.0 and 102.5 meters. „For me it was just a perfect day. I am so happy that I was able to win here. My results in Japan were not the best ones, so it’s good to know that I am hitting back into form now”, she said. Her second round jump of 102.5 meters also counts as official hill record, as this was the first World Cup competition on the newly built normal hill in Planica.
World Cup leader Sara Takanashi from Japan, who had won four competitions in a row before, came only second today. She made a pair of jumps of 97.0 and 98.0 meters. “Of course I am not satisfied with this result, but I think the reason for my performance today is, that we had a really long trip coming here. I’ll try to do better tomorrow”, she said. Third came Germany’s Carina Vogt with jumps of 96.0 and 99.0 meters. “I really like this new hill here, and I loved to compete in this atmosphere,” she said.
For the pleasure of the spectators, five Slovenian’s were under the best 14. Ironically Ursa Bogataj, who was not nominated for their Olympic team, was best of them on the fifth place. She jumped 91.5 and 95.0 meters. Eva Logar came sixth with jumps of 91.5 and 94.0 meters. Katja Pozun (88.5 and 93.5 m) and Maja Vtic (87.5 and 95.0 m) took places eleven and twelve. 14Th came Spela Rogelj with a pair of jumps of 87.5 and 91.0 meters.
In between of the “Slovenian phalanx” Yuki Ito from Japan came fifth with jumps of 90.0 nd 98.0 meters. Russia’s Irina Avvakumova took the seventh place with jumps of 94.0 and 96.0 meters, Coline Mattel from France came eight by jumping 91.0 and 94.0 meters.
An official training was held right before the competition, as it had to be cancelled yesterday due to bad weather conditions. It was a short moment of shock for everybody, when Susanna Forsström, from Finland fell right after landing her training jump and crashed into the wooden fencing that borders the hill. But luckily this fall looked worse than it really was and she was immediately able to stand up. Austria’s Chiara Hölzl did not feel well today and so decided not to start in the competition.
Takanashi still leads in the overall World Cup and has now 940 points. Second behind her is Vogt with a score of 606, Avvakumova is still third with 471 points. With her win today Iraschko-Stolz has now 422 points and so is fourth. A second competition here in Planica will be held tomorrow.
RESULTS AND STANDINGS:
Results after the 1st round »
Final results of the competition »
Current overall World Cup standings »