German ladies dominate in Ljubno

With Germany, the top favorite won the ladies' team competition in Ljubno. Carina Vogt, Anna Rupprecht, Juliane Seyfarth, and Katharina Althaus scored a total of 1001.3 points and took a clear win ahead of Slovenia (Jerneja Brecl, Spela Rogelj, Nika Kriznar, Ursa Bogataj) and Austria (Jacqueline Seifriedsberger, Lisa Eder, Chiara Hoelzl, Eva Pinkelnig).

This competition in Ljubno was the final test for the ladies' team competition that was surprisingly included in the program of the World Championships in Seefeld. The German ladies, who presented themselves in a strong shape in the recent individual competitions and also won this winter's first team event in Zao (JPN), won with a lead of about 25 points: "It is great that we were able to win the second team event of the season. The atmosphere at the hill was fantastic. We are all so happy to stand on top of the podium again. We are very excited about the team event in Seefeld and hope we can show equally good jumps there", said Katharina Althaus.

Slovenia, lead by Nika Kriznar and Ursa Bogataj, surprised in second today. Spela Rogelj also showed a strong performance and so the team of Slovenia also has to be reckoned with in the team competition at the Nordic WSC in Seefeld. Nika Kriznar explained: "We all did a very good job here today and we are delighted with the result in front of home crowd. This second place feels almost like a home victory to us. Now we need to repeat such jumps in tomorrow’s individual event. We are very excited about the team event in Seefeld, and now we know we are able to fight for the podium."

The Austrians managed to compensate for the absence of Daniela Iraschko-Stolz. Chiara Hoelzl and Jacqueline Seifriedsberger showed strong performances and secured the podium for their team. "It is great to be on the podium again, second team event of the season, the second podium for us. We all jumped really well today. We are already looking forward to Seefeld’s team event, but we still have two individual events in Oberstdorf next week, so we need to take it day by day. Of course, World Championships at home are very special for everyone since it only happens once", said Eva Pinkelnig.

For the teams of Japan and Norway, today's competition did not go as they had wished. Japan came in fourth, 2.6 points behind Austria, Norway was only sixth, behind Russia, due to a fall of Ingebjoerg Saglien Braaten.

The third and final competition of the FIS World Cup in Ljubno is an individual competition on Sunday at 2 pm CET.

Before the World Championships in Seefeld, the ladies will have two more individual competitions in Oberstdorf (GER) next weekend. In Seefeld, there will then be three medal events for the ladies for the first time. The team event on February 26th, the individual competition on February 27th and the mixed team on March 2nd.

Full results