Maiden victory for Nakamura
Mar 12, 2022·Nordic Combined
Anju Nakamura secured her first World Cup victory in Schonach (GER) today.
After the Ski Jumping round, Annika Sieff was in the lead on the Langenwaldschanze HS 100 in the morning.
Under sunny but slighty windy conditions the Junior World Champion from Italy jumped to 96 meters (121.5 pts) and took the lead. Therefore, she was the first one to start into the Wittenbach 5 km course this afternoon.
Rank 2 after jumping went to Haruka Kasai from Japan, who landed at 95 meters (121 pts) and went into the course only 2 seconds after Sieff.
Overall World Cup leader Gyda Westvold Hansen jumped the furthest distance of the day with 104.5 meters (119.6 pts) but lost some points at the landing. She took the third rank and started into the race 8 seconds after the Italian.
A total of 7 athletes went into the course within the first minute, including strong skier and red bib owner Anju Nakamura (94 m, +58 sec), so a tough fight for the podium could be expected.
After 2 km Hansen took the lead ahead of Sieff and Kasai, while Nakamura reduced her backlog to only 15.4 sec.
At the 3.5 km mark the Japanese caught up to the leading group and started an attack on the last uphill. For the first time this season Hansen wasn’t able to keep up with the high speed and collapsed, which lead to her ending her race after 3.7 km.
Kasai was the first one to go into the last 500 m, followed by Nakamura (+0.3 sec) who started an impressive finish sprint and reached the line 11.1 sec ahead of her teammate.
The third place went to Annika Sieff (+39.2 sec) from Italy.
Results: IG Women HS100/5km – 12.3.22, Schonach
Overall Results: IG Women HS100/5km – 12.3.22, Schonach
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