Second win this season for Sara Takanashi
In an exciting competition in Ramsau am Dachstein Japanese Sara Takanashi could capture her second win this season. In the final competition of the year 2012 she won ahead of Coline Mattel of France and Daniela iraschko of Austria. So the same three athletes were on the podium as last weekend in Sochi.
After the first round she was only fourth with a jump on 86.5 m, Sara Takanashi could jump on 91.5 m (241.0 points) in the final despite the tail winter and captured the win. "There are two reasons, why I can do that well on this hill here in Ramsau", said the happy winner. "At first it's the gradient of the inrun and the pressure that I feel. The other reason is that Ramsau is a great place and I just enjoy being here. Because I trained a lot under tailwind conditions recently I could also handle these condititions."
Second in today's competition was French Coline Mattel, who could achieve yet another podium result after she won in Sochi. But she was not able to defend her lead after a 86.5 m jump the first round. She had a strong jump in the final with 93 m (238.6 points), but lost some points because she couldn't show a telemark landing. "I have soom room for improvement in the landing. But I'm satisfied with the current situation and I notice that I'm constantly getting better", told the second-placed.
With 84 m local hero Daniela Iraschko was only ninth after the first half of the competition, with the longest jump of the day on 94 m in the second round she captured her spot on the podium. "It was a great motivation to jump in front of the home crowd. I'm from Styria and I really enjoyed the compete at home", said the Austrian.
After the first round, Slovene Maja Vtic and American Jessica Jerome were second and third and on their way to the podium. In the second round they could not keep up with the jumps of their colleagues and came in 13th and fifth. Besides Jessica Jerome, Lindsey Van (4th) and Sarah Hendrickson (7th) could achieve a Top 10 result, Abby Hughes and Alissa Johnson, winner of the qualification, followed as 11th and 12th. So the US team showed the best team performance today.
Slovenes couldn't meet expectations
The Slovenes, who impressed with very good performances of all of their athletes in the Thursday's qualification, were not able to fight for the top spots in the competition. Anja Tepes was the best of her team as ninth. The German athletes shared a similar fate. Carina Vogt was their best as tenth.
Takanashi extends overall lead
In the fight for the overall World Cup Sara Takanashi could extend her lead with today's victory. With 340 points she leads in the overall ranking ahead of Coline Mattel (266 points) and Sarah Hendrickson (252 points) and will go into the Christmas break with the leaders' bib.