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The World-Championships in Val di Fiemme

ski-jumping-italy
Feb 23, 2013
3 min read

Not only big in Japan: The Japanese mixed-team becomes World-Champion! 25/02/2013 19:40

Yuki Ito (19), Daiki Ito (27), Sara Takanashi (16) and Taku Takeuchi (25) jumped to gold in the mixed-team event on the normal hill! The competition already started well for the Japanese. Yuki Ito (90/91.5m) and Daiki Ito (100m each) opened and paved the way for silver medal winner Sara Takanashi (101.5/106.5m), who showed the farthest try in the whole competition and Taku Takeuchi, who won his group twice with 100.5 and 101.5m (total: 1011.0points).

The German team that was in the lead in the first round due to marvelous tries by Ulrike Grässler (96.5/97m) and Richard Freitag (102.5/97m) but lost ground in the second round due to Carina Vogt (95.5/98m), who couldn’t state that she is better than Grässler and Severin Freund, who was good but not as good as needed (96.5/99.5m). They lost silver in the end because the Austrian team stepped up with every jump they made. The total score for Germany was 984.9points, only 1.8points behind the eagles from Austria.

Chiara Hölzl was not only the youngest in the Austrian team, she was also the youngest girl in the whole race (15). And therefore she really did a great job (92.5/98.5m)! The support of Thomas Morgenstern (99.5/100m), who seems to come back to old strength, Jacqueline Seifriedsberger(97.5/99.5m) and Gregor Schlierenzauer (99/100m), was enough to overtake Germany but Japan was definitely unbeatable. Austria got 986.7points to its account.

Also other teams tried to step up and leave those teams behind but no one could. Norway presented two really strong guys with Tom Hilde (102/98.5m) and Anders Bardal (100.5/101m). Both of them would have been on the podium without problems. But the ladies seem to have less luck with the hill. Both Maren Lundby (91/93m) and Anette Sagen (92.5/96.5m) didn’t fulfill their expectations and ended up as 6th in their group. The gap between the performance of the ladies and men in the team degraded them to the fourth rank in the competition.

France on the other hand can be really satisfied with yesterday’s result. The team consisted of Lea Lemare (93.5/94m), Ronan Lamy-Chappuis (91/94m), Coline Mattel (93.5/95m) and Vincent Descombes-Sevoie (99/100m), who were wearing their flag on the cheeks and showed national pride. Descombes-Sevoie, who has been better in the group as Schlierenzauer was, really excelled himself with his performance. Bravo, Vincent!

Not even the United states having World-Champion Sarah Hendrickson (99/104.5m) and Jessica Jerome (98/98.5m), who have been first and second in their group, could overtake the French team. Of course, they were supported by Peter Frenette and Anders Johnson.

Team Italy had an unexpectedly hard time on their home hill. Elena Runggaldier was breathtaking with her performances of 94 and 98.5m. Also Andrea Morassi was able to improve himself (92/92.5m) but the home crowd hoped for more of the best Italian jumper Evelyn Insam and also Sebastian Colloredo. It was meant to be the seventh place in the end.

Also the Slovenian athletes have been fallen back a lot. Ursa Bogataj, Jaka Hvala, Spela Rogelj and Peter Prevc couldn’t achieve more than rank eight.

Not qualified for the second round have been Russia and Czech Republic. This was especially sad for Denis Kornilov and Jan Matura, who seriously have been good enough to move into the final.