Sara Takanashi fights back in Frenstat

Only one day after her disqualification, serial winner Sara Takanashi of Japan has the ladies' Ski Jumping world under control again. On the second day of competition in Frenstat (CZE), Takanashi put things right with her great performance: 97.5 m and 102 m earned her a lead of 10.2 points over second-placed Norwegian Maren Lundby (96 m and 98 m) and 11 points over her teammate Yuki Ito (100 m and 96.5 m), who won yesterday.

After the first round it didn't seem as if Takanashi would come in first. Yesterday's winner Ito was in the lead after the first half of the competition with her 100 m jump. "I had very good conditions in the first round, I think I was the only athlete with headwind. That's why I could jump that far", Ito analyzed her half-time lead. In the final Takanashi showed what she is capable of and took the top spot. "It was really difficult to jump here today in the first round due to the heavy rain and I was also too late at the take-off. In the second round it was okay, I'm very happy about the win today", said the winner.

Norway's Maren Lundby, already third on Friday, achieved her goal to further improve this result and finished second. "Today I'm much more satisfied than yesterday. My jumps were a lot better and I think that I could make some progress. I had no problems with the weather, it was Norwegian weather, so it was good for me. Yesterday I had some problems with this hill, but today I could adjust to it and so it worked a lot better", said Lundby.

Russia's Irina Avvakumova is a regular on the fourth place. She was already fourth in Courchevel (FRA) and in Frenstat yesterday and achieved the same result once again today. 16-year-old Lucile Morat of France could not repeat her podium finish, but with her fifth place she once again showed that she is jumping on a very high level. Morat definitely has a bright future ahead of her. Yuka Seto came in sixth and completed the great result of the Team Nippon.

The Slovenian team didn't have an athlete at the very top but still achieved another strong team result with the places seven (Ema Klinec), nine (Spela Rogelj) and ten (Maja Vtic). The team of Finland, consisting of father and daughter Kykkaenen confirmed the good 16th place in yesterday's event with an eighth place today - strong.

Best German was again Juliane Seyfarth, this time in 17th. Luisa Goerlich was 27th.

The organizer in Frenstat was also one of the winners today. Not even the heavy rain during the first round could spoil the atmosphere at the Ski Jumping party in Frenstat. The difficult HS 106 hill seems ready for further tasks, thanks to the hard working organizing team.

The FIS Ladies Grand Prix 2017 continues on September 9th and 10th in Chaikovsky (RUS) with the final two competitions of the season.

Japan's Yuki Ito now leads the overall ranking of the Grand Prix with 220 points, followed by Sara Takanashi (180 points) and Maren Lundby of Norway (176 points).