This week in Ski Jumping
The ladies
Another spectacular week is nearly behind us. Last weekend we saw Sara Takanashi celebrate a victory in Saturday's ladies race in Ljubno ahead of Daniela Iraschko-Stolz and Sarah Hendrickson, who returns to the podium for the first time since her injury time out. On Sunday, we saw her gaining the same place again, while Takanashi had to leave the victory to Daniela Iraschko-Stolz. If you want to find out more about those two, make sure to have a look at our portraits of them here and here.
The COC wandered to Lahti and brought Halvor Egner Granerud, Anze Lanisek and local hero Janne Ahonen podium places on Saturday, while Anze Lanisek, Maciej Kot and Karl Geiger succeeded on Sunday.
The FIS-Cup on the other hand took place in Brattleboro last weekend. There we saw Ziga Mandl winning on the first day ahead of Kevin Bickner (USA) and Ernest Prislic (SLO). On the second day, Samet Karta from Turkey won this race ahead of Ziga Mandl and Ernest Prislic!
The next competition then was set in Lake Placid on Tuesday. There we had Eetu Merilaeinen winning ahead of Nick Mattoon and Diego Dellasega. The latter showed the best jump of the day, 100.5m, 2m more than any other athlete.
A big shoutout goes to Ski Jumping Team Turkey – what a wonderful success for Samet Karta! Way to go, we're crossing fingers for you!
But the most memorable competitions of last weekend definitely were the ski flying events in Vikersund! After inheriting the world record for 4years, Johann Remen Evensen had to leave it to Peter Prevc, who sailed to 250m last weekend! He was the first man ever to fly over the 250m line! This deserves a lot of braveness from his and repect from out side. Therefore, we have a portrait of him in this week's issue for you to enjoy!
It would have been a race for the history books already but there have been 2 jumps that we don't want to miss to recapitulate with you: The first is Dimitry Vassiliev's 254m – this man still has the flair! Let's just get that right: 2-5-4m! Too bad that he couldn't set a proper landing – well, it doesn't have much to do with the landing problems that he usually has. It was more the pressure and the power that pulled him down on his back and let him beat his back of the head in the snow. Anyway, hats off for the 35-year old Russian – it was quite a show anyway!
And then there came Mister World Record – Anders Fannemel – who showed a perfect jump but then grabbed upwind down at about 215m and went higher and higher and sailed without any effort as it seemed to absolutely marvellous 251.5m. - That he could also manage to stand! So in the end, the world record remains in Norway- for a year or maybe until the season end in Planica, who knows?
And just yesterday, Carina Vogt, Germany's best female jumper grabbed the gold medal in the Nordic World-Championships in Falun ahead of Yuki Ito and Daniela Iraschko-Stolz. Canadian shooting star Taylor Henrich, who was third after the first round, lost the medal by 5.9 points as 5th in the end. Eva Pinkelnig – she takes part in her first WCS ever – finished on rank 8. Again, Sara Takanashi, who we portraited last week, was 8th after her first try and could climb 4 places in the final round. But again, she could not get a medal in the important competition although she is one of the most successful ski jumpers of all time – at the age of 18!
We've also seen the men's qualification for today's individual WCS competition on the normal hill yesterday. Simon Ammann celebrated his comeback after his severe fall in Bischofshofen – and already took home the qualification victory. He's not only back but fully in shape to fight for the podium today! Besides, also Andreas Wellinger appeared in the World-Cup circus for the first time after crashing at the end of November last year. The junior vice-world-champion of 2015 is also eager to grab a medal today. Finishing as 4th in the qualification gives him big chances for this.
But also Anders Bardal - 3rd yesterday after returning from his timeout after breaking his wrist, got himself into the top list of candidates for the victory.
We would also like to tell you proudly, that all Italians -Varesco, Cecon, Colloredo and Bresadola managed to qualify for today's competition with Davide Bresadola being the best on rank 19. Also USA's Will Rhoads, who we interviewed for At The Hills, qualified without problems.
Besides, Nori Kasai (93m), Severin Freund (93m), Roman Koudelka (92m) and Rune Velta (91.5m) out of the prequalified showed the best performances yesterday. So we're absolutely sure, this is going to be a tough and exciting fight today!
Don't miss any ski jumping competition in Falun! Here's the schedule and everything you need to know.
- Peggy Kierstan
