Lundby the best in Ljubno

Maren Lundby won the first FIS World Cup Ladies Ski Jumping in Ljubno (SLO). The Norwegian took her 4th win of the season with jumps to 92,5 and 95,0 meters and 256,7 points ahead of Austria´s Daniela Iraschko-Stolz and Katharina Althaus of Germany.

Takanashi and Ito not in Ljubno
The World Cup leaders Sara Takanashi and Yuki Ito of Japan are not starting in Ljubno but taking some training days in Japan before the competitions in Pyeongchang and the World Championships. Lundby said afterwards: “I am very happy with my victory. The atmosphere was great, the crowd gave me at least five meters more.”

Huge crowd in Slovenia
In front of 7.000 spectators Daniela Iraschko-Stolz delivered a tough fight for the victory. 90,0 and 94,5 meters and 251,1 points gave her the second place. Iraschko-Stolz said: “It was awesome jumping here. It’s the biggest crowd we have in the World Cup. I was trying my best to win but Maren was better today.” On third place Katharina Althaus had 89,5 and 92,0 meters and 245,6 points. The German said: “It was really fun today and I am very happy with this result. We are on a very good way for the World Championships.”

German fight for podium
Carina Vogt, who was still on shared third place with Althaus after the first round, missed out on the podium by only 0,6 points with 89,5 and 92,5 meters. Local hero Ema Klinec was the best of the Slovenian team with 241,1 points on 5th place. Jaqueline Seifriedsberger, with 240,2 points on 6th place and Chiara Hoelzl on 9th place secured a great team result for Austria.

Malsiner leaving out
Junior World Champion Manuela Malsiner of Italy came in 7th and left out on a possible podium position due to a bad landing in the final round. Svenja Wuerth was the third German in the top ten finishing 8th. Maja Vtic came in 10th ahead of Julia Kykkaenen of Finland, who made the best result of this season. Nita Englund was the best of the US team coming in 12th, Spela Rogelj of Slovenia came in 13th ahead of Elena Runggaldier and Ramona Straub. Best French athlete was Lea Lemare on 16th place, the only Japanese jumper in Ljubno, Kaori Iwabuchi, came in 20th.

Avvakumova injured - Barannikova best Russian
This place she had to share with Anastasiya Barannikova. While teammate Irina Avvakumova suffered a broken rib with a fall in Hinzenbach last week and can´t compete in Ljubno, Barannikova was best Russian athlete.

On Sunday the qualification in Ljubno starts at 11.45, the competition is on from 13.00 (CET).