German ladies on top

Third World Cup competition of the season ended up with a third winner. German Katharina Althaus won today’s final event of the Lillehammer Triple held on the Lysgardsbakken HS-140 hill. Second was her teammate Ramona Staub. Third place went to Austria’s Daniela Iraschko-Stolz. Althaus took over the yellow bib from Lundby, as well as claimed the overall Lillehammer Triple top spot.

In the final round Althaus posted the longest jump of the day equalling her own hill record from last year (139,5 meters). Eventually, the German came in 12 points ahead of her teammate Ramona Straub who in the final moved up from place four. “The weekend was great. I couldn´t produce the jumps I know I´m capable of on the smaller hill, on the large hill it all came together. My second jump was very nice. It´s nice to be on the podium again here in Lillehammer. Winning the triple for the second year in a row is a great feeling, and I would like to thank my whole team, my family, and my friends,” said overwhelmed Althaus.

“It was a mixed weekend with highs and lows. In the training round on the normal hill, I jumped 66 meters, to get this result today on the large hill was unexpected so I´m very happy. Next weekend is Neustadt my home hill, I´m looking forward to the home support, and we will see what happens,” said Straub for whom it was the first World Cup podium ever.

Austrian Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, who was in the lead after the first competition round with the longest jump of 131 meters, ended up third. “My jumping has improved over the week, it is more stable than at the beginning. After my training crash on Monday, it was hard to compete on the small hill because I wanted too much. Today I managed really good jumps, it was not so easy with the wind conditions in the second round. I´m happy with my ski jumping, and looking forward to the next hills.”

The competition was held in relatively difficult weather conditions, with heavy snowfall at the beginning and changing winds towards the end of the final round. Luckily, neither caused any delays delivering many surprising changes in the lead and final results.

Eva Pinkelnig from Austria, who seems to be in a really good shape after last year’s break from competing, was fourth today. Places five and six went to yesterday’s winner Russian Lidiia Iakovleva, who moved up from place thirteen, and her teammate Alexandra Kustova.

It was an extremely good day for the German team of head coach Andy Bauer. Four of his athletes ended up in top-10. Apart from Althaus and Straub on the podium, place seven went to Carina Vogt, winner of the first event in Lillehammer on Friday Juliane Seyfarth was eight.

Top-10 was completed by best Japanese Yuki Ito and Slovene Nika Kriznar, who moved up from place fifteen. After yesterday’s disqualification, Sara Takanashi was eleventh today. Place 14th went to the best of the French Lea Lemare, who was on the way to a top-10 result in seventh after the first round. Winner of yesterday’s qualification Slovene Ema Klinec was 16th today.

Also, the host nation of Norway can be satisfied with their result today. The best today was surprisingly Anne Odine Stroem in 12th, Silje Opseth ranked 15th. Ingebjoerg Saglien Braaten, who made her first ever World Cup points in Friday’s competition was 17th. Maren Lundby, who took over the yellow bib in yesterday’s competition, only was 22nd today.

After today’s win Katharina Althaus took over the yellow bib and with 200 points she came ahead of her teammate Juliane Seyfarth (177 points) and Russian revelation of the weekend Lidiia Iakovleva (172 points). Maren Lundby is fourth (169 points). 
Held for the second time in history Lillehammer Triple tournament was won by Katharina Althaus, who overtook two of her teammates Juliane Seyfarth in second and Ramona Straub in third. 
Team Germany leads in the Nations Cup (646 points) ahead of Norway (304 points) and Austria (284 points).

The next ladies World Cup competition will be held on Sunday, 9th December, in Titisee-Neustadt.

Full results