Alexandria Loutitt wins first World Cup for Canada in Zao

Alexandria Loutitt with her jumps of 98.5 and 95 meters and 240.3 points won Friday’s competition in Zao and at the same time wrote the history for Canadian ski jumping – became first women who won the World Cup. Second and third place went to two Austrian jumpers - Eva Pinkelnig (93.5 and 94.5 m; 231.8 pts) and Chiara Kreuzer (twice 92.5 m; 228.6 pts). It was Kreuzer's best result of the season and their first podium since their third place finish in Lillehammer on March 10, 2020.

Selina Freitag was third after the first round, but Chiara Kreuzer was better in the second round. In fourth place, she was still the best German. Thanks to a strong second jump, Katharina Althaus made up six places and tied for sixth place with the best Norwegian Anna Odine Stroem. Between Freitag and Althaus, Nika Kriznar was the best Slovenian in fifth place.

Completing the top ten was a Japanese trio of Nozomi Maruyama, who also had her best result of the season, as well as qualifier winners Sara Takanashi and Yuka Seto. Yuki Ito lost nine places and  she finished on the 15th place. Directly behind Sara Marita Kramer, who was 16th. Pauline Hessler and Luisa Görlich achieved 18th and 20th places.

Meanwhile, the first World Cup points went to the Japanese Kurumi Ichinohe and Nagomi Nakayama, who finished 23rd and 25th. Qi Liu of China picked up China's first World Cup points as she finished 29th. All three benefited from the disqualification of Anna Rupprecht, whose suit turned out to be too big after the second round. As a result, the ski jumper from Germany lost a top ten result.