Katharina Althaus wins Saturday's competition in Sapporo
Jan 07, 2023·Ski Jumping
Katharina Althaus won the first of two World Cup competitions in Sapporo on Saturday. German athlete reached a distance of 122 meters and a top distance of 131 meters, scoring 263.8 points. Second place went to the strong Slovenian Ema Klinec with 122 and 129 meters and 256.3 points. Third place went to overall World Cup leader Eva Pinkelnig, with jumps of 122 and 126.5 meters and 249.7 points.
Selina Freitag achieved again a top result, coming sixth as the second best German. In the two places between her and the podium were Silje Opseth from Norway, who was able to make up seven places with a strong second jump, and other Austrian Chiara Kreuzer, who even overtook eleven jumpers on the way to her best result of the season.
Anna Odine Stroem also managed to catch up, ending in seventh place. With Nika Kriznar, a second Slovenian ended up in the top ten, ahead of the best Japanese Yuka Seto. Sara Takanashi finished eleventh. The top ten was completed by Canadian Alexandria Loutitt, who jumped a new personal best of 128.5 meters on her 19th birthday. Team colleague Abigail Strate fought her way up seven places to 13th in the finale.
Pauline Hessler was able to celebrate her best result of the season with 17th place. Anna Rupprecht (19th) and Luisa Görlich (21st) also showed solid performances. For the two other Austrian jumpers in the points, Sara Marita Kramer (12th) and Jacqueline Seifriedsberger (23rd), it fell back six and nine places respectively in the final.
The biggest loser of the second round was the Slovenian Nika Prevc, who fell twelve places and was only 24th. Nagomi Nakayama and Machiko Kubota of the Japan national group qualified on their debut for the competition, finishing 34th and 38th respectively. Yuka Kobayashi, the sister of brothers Ryoyu and Junshiro, fared even better, finishing 26th and landing right in front of Haruka Iwasa. The Chinese Ping Zeng achieved her best World Cup result as 36th.
The other two debutants Riko Sakurai and Yuzuki Sato missed out on qualifying as 43rd and 45th in the competition. Team colleague Kurumi Ichinohe was disqualified because a suit was too big. The Chinese Qi Liu got also the disqualification. She was too light for her ski length. Like the day before, teammate Qingyue Peng did not start at all. Eirin Maria Kvandal, who was convincing in training, was then absent from the competition.
