Next victory for Maren Lundby
Aug 31, 2018·Ski Jumping
Norway’s Maren Lundby remains the outstanding athlete in Ladies Ski Jumping. In Zao, Lundby won the fourth Individual competition of the ladies tour in Japan. With 97,0 and the longest jump of the day to 101,0 meter in the final round Lundby got 245,9 points and won ahead of the local heroes Yuki Ito and Sara Takanashi.
Tricky conditions in Zao
After a difficult competition, where already the qualification had to be cancelled due to heavy wind, Lundby said: “It was not easy today, after my first jump I almost fell. But I am extremely happy about the results here in Japan. It is unbelievable.”
Ito and Takanashi on the podium
Yuki Ito celebrated her first Individual podium of the season with jumps to 90,5 and 91,5 meters and 215,7 points. Ito said: “My jumps are still not really good but they are getting better. I am happy about the result but I still have a lot of work to do, especially in the inrun.” Only 0,3 points behind, team-mate Sara Takanashi came in third with 89,0 and 91,0 meters. Takanashi said: “The result is good for me but my jumps are still not. I am working on my technique and I hope I will make more progress until the Olympics in PyeongChang.”
Career-best for Kriznar and Haralambie
Slovenia’s Nika Kriznar had a career best coming in 4th with 214,6 points, missing out on the podium by only 0,8 points. Irina Avvakumova finished 5th with 208,7 points, rounding up a very good weekend after third places in the Individual competition on Friday and with the Russian team on Saturday. Behind Yuka Seto Juliane Seyfarth of Germany had a season best on 7th place ahead of Ema Klinec and team-mate Ramona Straub. 10th place went to Kaori Iwabuchi who completed an excellent team-result for Japan. Romania´s Daniela Haralambie made the best World Cup result of her career coming in 11th ahead of Austria´s Chiara Hoelzl.
Young Norwegians better and better
Chang Xinyue finished 16th for China, the young Norwegians Anna Odine Stroem and Silje Opseth finished 19th and 20th. Elena Runggaldier was best Italian on 24th place, Julia Kykkaenen of Finland came in 26th. On 30th place Germany´s Ulrike Graessler made World Cup points for the first time since her horrible fall two years ago.
Lundby far ahead
In the overall World Cup Maren Lundby stays on top with 760 points. Second is Katharina Althaus, who did not compete in Zao, with 500 points ahead of Sara Takanashi with 470. Next stage of the FIS World Cup Ladies Ski Jumping is Ljubno (SLO) next weekend.
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