Nika Prevc outclasses in Villach

Nika Prevc was truly in her own league on Wednesday afternoon in Villach: with 96.5 and 92 meters and 262.7 points, the Slovenian won the first individual competition in the Alpine arena with a dominating performance. She was a whopping 26 points or the equivalent of 13 meters ahead of Eva Pinkelnig in second place. The Austrian brought a lot of joy to the red-white-red fans with 88 and 95 meters and 236.7 points. Canadian Abigail Strate came third with two jumps of 91 meters and 233.6 points.

"I would like to thank you to my fans, I am very thankful for all the support. It means a lot to me. This season is so far so good for me, I am stable and my jumps are better an better. I feel very relaxed, my jumps give me a lot of confidence and it gives me a lot of calmness. Also my dream is coming true, as I always wanted to wear the yellow bib. Being the World Cup Leader is something unbelievable. " - said Nika Prevc after the competition.

Yuki Ito came fourth and therefore the best Japanese woman ahead of ÖSV jumper Julia Mühlbacher, who, like seventh-placed Lisa Eder, achieved her best result of the season. Like Pinkelnig, Nika Kriznar fought her way up six places and came in sixth. Teammate Katra Komar achieved her first top ten place in eighth place and thus her best career result. Anna Rupprecht was the best German in ninth place, tied with Sara Takanashi.

The Italian Annika Sieff equaled her best career result in eleventh place. Josephine Pagnier was the only remaining Frenchwoman after Emma Chervet was disqualified in qualifying, but her time in the yellow jersey ended in 14th place. She had to give up the overall lead to Nika Prevc. Selina Freitag and Jacqueline Seifriedsberger, who ended up ahead and behind the Frenchwoman respectively, struggled with their placements and jumping performances.

Jenny Rautionaho from Finland made a formidable comeback in the final and fought her way up from 27th to 16th place. This meant she also finished ahead of Luisa Görlich and the Romanian Daniela Haralambie, who achieved her best result of the season in 19th place. Agnes Reisch, on the other hand, was very upset because she went into the final in seventh place after a strong 93 meters, but missed out on a secure top ten place when she fell while landing. Juliane Seyfarth collected three World Cup points in 28th place and benefited from Anezka Indrackova's disqualification in the final, which pushed the Czech back to 30th place.