Lundby on top in Sapporo

Maren Lundby won the first Individual competition of the FIS World Cup Ladies Ski Jumping in Sapporo (JPN). With jumps to 95,5 and 93,5 meters and 252,9 points Lundby stayed ahead of Germanys Katharina Althaus and local hero Sara Takanashi.

7th victory for Lundby
After her 7th World Cup victory, Lundby said: “I am feeling very good after this victory. My jumps where really good, even though I was not sure if I won after my second jump. I hope I can show the same shape in tomorrow’s competition.” Katharina Althaus performed 93,5 and in the final round the longest jump of the day to 96,0 meters and got 248,6 points.

Althaus not completely happy
She said: “My jumps where pretty good. The first jump was not my best jump, in the second round I´ve made up for it.” Together with Maren Lundby, Althaus finished all Individual competitions of this season on the podium on first or second place. Sara Takanashi, who won the qualification on Friday, finished third with two jumps to 93,0 meters and 238,2 points. The Japanese said after her third third place of the season: “I am happy with the result and my jumps, but of course I want to win. I hope, I can jump even better on Sunday.”

Ito just behind Takanashi
Takanashi´s team-mate Yuki Ito came in fourth only 0,9 points behind Takanashi. Irina Avvakumova of Russia showed a very decent performance and finished fifth with 227,7 points. In beautiful, sunny weather at the Miyanomori jumping hill in Sapporo, Ursa Bogataj was best Slovenian athlete on 6th place ahead of Carina Vogt and Austrias Chiara Hoelzl on a shared 7th place.

Great result for China
Behind Italy´s Lara Malsiner, Xinyue Chang made history for the Chinese team. Her 10th place was the second best Chinese World Cup result ever, after a 7th place of Qi Liu back in 2013. Norway´s Anna Odine Stroem had a personal best coming in 16th, Daniela Haralambie scored for Romania on 19th position. Abby Ringquist was best of the US team on 23rd place ahead of Julia Kykkaenen of Finland. Taylor Henrich and Abigail Strate scored World Cup points for Canada on places 29 and 30.

The second competition in Sapporo will start on Sunday at 3.00 am (CET). The qualification starts at 1.45 am.