Sara Takanashi and Yuki Ito performed best in the official training today in Falun.
Before this World Cup winter will be closed with the final competition on the large hill in Planica next week, the last two normal hill World Cups are held in Falun this weekend. It is the first time ever, that Ladies Ski Jumping World Cups are held in the Swedish town, that will host next year’s Nordic World Ski Championships.
Already today an official training was held there. Three training rounds were held. A qualification was not necessary, as only 49 jumpers are on the start list.
Two jumpers proved once more, that Japan is the measure of all things at the moment. Sara Takanashi, who is already fixed as winner of the overall World Cup, took the first place ahead of Yuki Ito in all three training rounds. There was a good breeze of headwind at the hill during the first training round, but later on it calmed down and so some jumpers even had to fight tailwind then.
In the first training Takanashi jumped 97.0 meters, Ito 94.0. Third behind them came Carina Vogt with a jump of 90.0 meter. The Olympic Champion, who skipped the World Cups in Rasnov and Oslo because she had aches in her knee, did not jump in the two remaining rounds. So we can only hope, that she is physically fine. Canada’s Taylor Henrich jumped even 95.0 meters in ths round, but as she lost points to wind and gate compensation this was only enough to take the fourth rank.
In the second training round Takanashi jumped, 93.5 meters. Ito was again second with a jump of 92.5 meters. This time Julia Kykkänen from Finland and Coline Mattel from France shared the third place behind them. Kykkänen made a jump of 88.0, while Mattel jumped only 87.0 meters. But after application of the wind compensation rule, both scored 44.9 points.
In the third training Round Takanashi made a jump of 94.0 meters, Ito jumped 88.0 meters. Third behind them came Jessica Jerome from the United States with a jump of 87.5 meters. Kykkänen came fourth with a jump of 87.0 meters and so performed very consistent in this training.
Unfortunately the weather forecast for tomorrow is not very promising. Heavy wind, along with some snowfall is expected, but hopefully we will see a nice competition anyway.
FULL TRAINING RESULTS CAN BE FOUND HERE:
http://data.fis-ski.com/pdf/2014/JP/3959/2014JP3959RLT.pdf