Daniela Iraschko-Stolz and Sara Takanashi set a high standard in the first official training in Sochi today. Hendrickson and Avvakumova behind expectations.
After the first official training for the Olympic premiere on Tuesday, it all looks like there will be a close duel for Gold between Japan’s Sara Takanashi and Austria’s Daniela Iraschko-Stolz. In two of the three training rounds, that were held on the HS106 hill today, the Austrian was decently ahead of the Japanese. Also behind of these two, the jumping was on a very high level, so we can really look forward to see a nice competition.
Takanashi jumped 98.0, 99.5 and 96.5 meters and so was best in the first round and second in the two following rounds. Iraschko-Stolz was second behind Takanashi in the first round, when she jumped 97.0 meters. In the second round she fell when landing a 100.0 meter jump, but as there are no style points awarded in training, she scored the most points in this round. Also with her third jump of 99.0 meters she finished first.
Germany’s Carina Vogt, currently second in the World Cup standings, jumped 95.5, 94.0 and 96.5 meters and so took places three, eleven and four. Yuki Ito from Japan came seventh in the first round, when she jumped 93.0 meters. In both of the two next rounds she jumped 97.5 meters and so took a third and a fifth round rank. Very consistent was the performance of Slovenia’s Maja Vtic. She jumped 93.0, 98.5 and 98.5 meters and so came fifth in the first two rounds and third in the final round.
Russia’s hope Irina Avvakumova fell short of expectations and jumped 91.5, 90.0 and 89.5 meters only. This was only enough to take places 15, 19 and 20. 2013 World Champion Sarah Hendrickson appeared in this training for the first time after curing an ACL injury suffered last summer. It was one of the really thrilling questions prior to these Games, if she will be able to keep pace with the elite. After passing on the first round, she jumped 81.5 and 78.0 meters. With these jumps she took just places 28 and 27.
Germany’s Ulrike Grässler and Finland’s Julia Kykkänen both skipped this first training.
FULL TRAINING RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE:
http://data.fis-ski.com/pdf/2014/JP/3927/2014JP3927RLT1.pdf