COC-L: Nadymova takes it all in Nizhny Tagil

Russia’s Stefaniya Nadymova made history today. The 23-year-old won also the second of two Ladies’ Continental Cup events in Nizhny Tagil and entered the history books as the first-ever female Continental Cup overall winner.

Today, Nadymova beat German Jenny Nowak by 2.6 seconds and her closest rival for the overall standings, Ayane Miyazaki by 5.3 seconds.

At first it looked like Miyazaki might be able to fight back and challenge Nadymova for the overall win when the Japanese won the jumping round with a jump of 87.5 metres. But the Russian was not to be dissuaded and countered with a jumpof 87 metres, so that only 3 seconds separated the two adversaries going out on the cross-country track. Jenny Nowak minimised her delay with a good jump of 85.5 metres and started 16 seconds after Miyazaki, putting her into contention for a podium spot today.

Italy’s Veronica Gianmoena showed 83 metres and started 24 seconds after Miyazaki. Behind the four athletes, a bigger gap opened and the rest of the field was more than one minute and 36 seconds behind the leader at the start.

Even with Anastasia Goncharova putting down the fastest time of the day again with 15:08.4 for the 5 km, the Russian was not able to improve beyond the fifth position. Gianmoena clang to her fourth place, finishing one minute and seven seconds behind Nadymova. Yura Murakami was sixth, Sophia Maurus seventh, Svetlana Gladikova eighth, Anna Aleksandrova ninth and Olga Aristove tenth.

With this result, Nadymova took the overall win with 380 points, Ayane Miyazaki was second with 320 and Jenny Nowak third with 250 points. A total of 19 ladies earned Continental Cup points in the inaugural Ladies’ COC season.