Mariia Iakovleva won the inaugural FIS Continental Cup competition at the Olympic hill in Zhangjiakou (HS106). The Russian athlete won with jumps of 86 m and 98.5 m (a new hill record). The second was Diana Toropchenowa and the third was Carina Vogt.
Li Xueyao was in the lead after the first round. The Chinese athlete landed 91 meters and was ahead of Mariia Iakovleva (86 m) and 3.2 points above Dong Bing (88 m). Diana Toropchenova (89 m) was fourth, Peng Qingyue (92 m) was fifth, and Carina Vogt (85.5 m) was sixth.
In the final, Mariia Iakovleva flew the farthest. The Russian set a new hill record (98.5 m) and thanks to this she won the competition with an advantage of 5.2 points over her countryman, Diana Toropchenowa (91.5 m). On the lowest step of the podium was Carina Vogt (97 m), who turned out to be better than the hosts – Dong Bing (88.5 m) and Peng Qingyue (94.5 m).
Halfway leader, Li Xueyao was disqualified in the final and ended the competition at the 13th place.
Thanks to the victory in China, Mariia Iakovleva (100 points) became the first leader of the Continental Cup in the 2021/2022 season. The Russian is ahead of Diana Toropchenowa (80 points) and Carina Vogt (60 points).
The second competition in Zhangjiakou is scheduled for Sunday. The competition starts at 13:00 CET.