Takanashi unbeatable again

Sara Takanashi also won the second competition on the big hill in Oberstdorf. In partly heavy snowfall in Bavaria the Japanese remained unimpressed with the conditions and set her jumps to 124,0 and 129,0 meters. 263,0 points gave her a more then solid advance of 28,9 points ahead of Slovenia’s Ema Klinec. The third place went to Irina Avvakumova of Russia.

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Difficult conditions**
Takanashi said afterwards: „The conditions where tricky today. But first of all I am grateful to everyone who helped to make the competition possible. I am very happy with my weekend. Now I am looking forward to the competitions in Japan.“ After the first round it was still a tight race between Takanashi and Klinec with the Japanese in the lead by only three points. After her first jump to 127,5 meters Klinec could not pull of such a distance in the final round again. 115,5 meters and 234,1 points put her on second place and for the first time this season on the World Cup podium. Klinec said: „This result is extremely important for me. I’ve had a tough summer with some mental issues. But I feel stronger now and hope I can hang on with this level of my jumps in Japan.“

Tight race for third place
Irina Avvakumova, who already was second on Saturday, did not seem to be able to make it to the podium again. With 112,5 meters she was only on 11th place after the first round. A great final jump to 124,5 meters and 223,7 points had been just enough for another big success for the Russian team. Avvakumova said: „This weekend went very good for me. The conditions did not bother me. In Russia we are jumping no matter how the conditions are. And usually they are bad. I am curious if I can jump that god on the normal hill next week.“ Behind Avvakumova Japans Yuki Ito came back from 12th place after the first round and missed the podium by only 0,1 point. The other way around things went for Austria’s Daniela Iraschko-Stolz.

Iraschko-Stolz can´t hold her position
On third place after the first round her final jump to 117,5 meters was a little too short for the podium. 0,3 point where lagging to the podium. Norway’s Maren Lundby got back in track after a disappointing 14th place on Saturday and finished sixth this time ahead of the best Germans Svenja Wuerth and Carina Vogt. Chiara Hoelzl of Austria climbed up the ladder in the final round from 15th to 9th place, local hero Katharina Althaus finished on 10th place. Nita Englund, who won the qualification round, was still in touch with the podium on 4th place after the first round and finished on a still very decent 12th place behind Yuka Seto of Japan. Slovenia’s Maja Vtic, Japans Kaori Iwabuchi and Taylor Henrich of Canada completed the top 15. For the Italian team Elena Runggaldier and Manuela Malsiner on places 17 and 21 scored, Julia Kykkaenen finished 19th for Finland ahead of the best French lady Lea Lemare. The Czech one-lady team with Barbora Blazkova came in on 23rd place.