Takanashi a class of her own

Sara Takanashi won the first of two single competitions of the FIS World Cup Ladies Ski Jumping in Oberstdorf. The Japanese outclassed her competitors with jumps to 131,0 and 129,0 meters and won with 283,4 points ahead of Russia´s Irina Avvakumova and teammate Yuki Ito.

Takanashi satisfied
Sara Takanashi said: „I am very happy with my jumps today. The conditions have been quite difficult but I’ve tried to stay in the right position. One of my main goals for this season was the right approach at the take-off and it worked very well today.“ Avvakumova achieved her first World Cup podium this season with 117,5 meters in the first round and the furthest jump of the day with 132,0 meters but still was 22,9 points behind Takanashi. This was mainly because the Japanese had an up to 6 gates lower inrun then some of her opponents.

Avvakumova loves the big hills
Irina Avvakumova stated: „It is a great result for me. I’ve tried to show my best possible jumps. I really love the big hills, I have a much better feeling in the air. I wish we would have more competitions on big hills for the ladies.“ Third place went to Yuki Ito 121,5 and 131,5 meters. The Japanese got 259,7 points and was beaten by Avvakumova by only 0,8 points. The Japanese said: „My first jump was not so good, I was a bit late at the take-off. The second jump was much better and I am happy with my result.

Local heroes just behind the podium
On place four and five local heroes Katharina Althaus and Carina Vogt could celebrate their best season results even though they missed the podium clearly by points. Althaus finished with 242,3 points, Vogt was another 6,8 points behind. Best Austrian of the day in front of more than 2.000 spectators was Chiara Hoelzl on 6th place ahead of the two Slovenians Ema Klinec and Maja Vtic. After heavy snow fall brought a lot of hard work for the organisers in order to prepare the hill and the infrastructure, the weather still was not on its best ski jumping mood.

Tricky conditions
A strong tail wind, especially in the first round, did not allow very far jumps. Sarah Hendrickson from the United States proofed herself unimpressed with the conditions and made it back to the top ten, finishing 9th just ahead of Jaqueline Seifriedsberger from Austria. Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, twice second at the last World Cup stage in Nizhny Tagil couldn’t fin her best jumps today and finished 12th behind Japans Kaori Iwabuchi. The good result for the German team was finalized by Svenja Wuerth and Luisa Goerlich on places 13 and 15, Maren Lundby jumped in-between and finished 14th. Thanks to Taylor Henrich and Atsuko Tanaka on places 18 and 30 Canada scored twice while Lea Lemare on 19 was the only French girl in the points. Julia Kykkaenen finished 22nd for Finland, Manuela Malsiner saved the Italian honour on 29.

The second competition in Oberstdorf starts on Sunday at 4.20pm (CET).