JWSC: Japan claims historic Team Sprint gold

Team Japan won gold at the premiere of the women’s Team Sprint at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Planica (SLO).

Germany was in the lead after the Ski Jumping round, with Anne Haeckel reaching 90.5 meters and Ronja Loh jumping to the furthest distance of the day on 98 meters, with a total of 218 points. They were therefore the first ones, to start into the 2x4.5 km cross-country race in the afternoon.

Rank 2 after jumping went to the Japanese Yuzuka Fujiwara (89 m) and Ikeda Hazuki (89 m) with 205.2 points, who went into the course 17 seconds after the Germany.
The Norwegians Nora Helene Evans (88.5 m) and Ingrid Laate (94.5 m) placed third with 203.6 points, 19 seconds behind the leaders.

Haeckel defended the German lead until the first exchange to Loh, although Hazuki reduced the gap to +7.5 sec before handing over to Fujiwara. Another strong performance was shown by team USA with Alexa Brabec handing over to Kai McKinnon only 10.5 sec behind the Germans on third place, after having started the race as 5th (+29 sec) after Ski Jumping.

Meanwhile Finn Heta Hirvonen caught up to Evans, who couldn’t defend the Norwegian position after jumping. 
At the 2.2 km mark, Ronja Loh was caught by strong skiing Fujiwara (+0.6 sec), closely followed by McKinnon (+3.7 sec) and Finn Korhonen (+9.9 sec).

Laura Pletz showed an impressive performance and had the fastest skiing time, bringing Austria from 9th place to 6th at the second exchange and Anna-Sophia Gredler continuing the good work, bringing them to 5th place before the 3rd exchange.

Meanwhile, Anne Haeckel couldn’t keep up with the high speed at the front and fell back, handing over to Loh already 19.3 seconds behind the American leaders to Loh, who went into the lap together with Individual World Champion Korhonen (+19.5 sec) to fight for the remaining podium spot.

The battle for gold was no less exciting. Fujiwara started an attack on the last uphill into the stadium that McKinnon tried to follow, so both entered the home stretch together.
Fujiwara secured the gold medal for Japan 0.4 seconds ahead of McKinnon, who won silver for the US team. 
With a fantastic catch-up race, Pletz (+27.9 sec) took third place and the bronze medal for Austrias team.

SJ Results: JWSC - IG HS102/2x4.5km, Women - 10.2.24, Planica
Official Results: JWSC - IG HS102/2x4.5km, Women - 10.2.24, Planica