Marita Kramer won the Saturday competition of the Russian Tour Blue Bird at the Aist hill (HS97) in Nizhny Tagil. The athlete from Austria triumphed thanks to jumps of 96.5 and 96 meters. The second place was taken by Sara Takanashi, who became the new FIS World Cup leader, ahead of the Nika Kriznar, third today.
In the first round, Marita Kramer made the farthest jump. The Austrian reached 96.5 meters and was leading with an advantage of 5.3 points over Chiara Hoelzl (93.5 m). Nika Kriznar (94 m) was third, followed by Sara Takanashi (92.5 m), Nozomi Maruyama (95 m) and Silje Opseth (90.5 m).
The next positions were taken by Thea Minyan Bjoerseth (93.5 m), Yuki Ito (89.5 m) and Ema Klinec (88 m). The list of best 10 was closed by Juliane Seyfarth (87.5 m).
In the final, Marita Kramer sealed her victory with a jump of 96 meters. The athlete from Austria won with an advantage of 8 points over Sara Takanashi (95.5 m) and 14 points over Nika Kriznar (94 m). Silje Opseth (93 m), Chiara Hoelzl (89.5 m) and Nozomi Maruyama (89.5 m) were ranked just behind the podium.
Thea Minyan Bjoerseth (88.5 m) finished the competition on seventh place. Yuki Ito was eighth (88.5 m), Katharina Althaus (92 m) was ninth and Irina Avvakumova (89.5 m) took the 10th place.
Thanks to Saturday’s win, Marita Kramer (232.1 points) became the first leader of this year’s edition of the Russian Tour Blue Bird. Sara Takanashi is second (224.1) and Nika Kriznar is third (218.1).
Sara Takanashi (686 points) took the lead in the FIS World Cup overall standings, 15 points ahead of Nika Kriznar (671). Marita Kramer is third (560).
The second competition in Nizhny Tagil is scheduled on Sunday. The event starts at 13:00 (CET), preceded by the qualification round (11:30 CET).