JWSC Liberec: Clear win for Slovenian ladies team
The final decisions at the Junior World Championships in Liberec are going to be in place after this Saturday's competitions. Up first, the ladies have already made their attempts to make JWSC history, and the effect was a clear win by the favored Slovenian representation, which finished ahead of their rivals from France and Germany.
After the premiere team competition for women in Erzurum last year, when the Japanese secured the first-ever team title, this time it was a Slovenian quartet at the top of the podium (1009 points). After strong performances in recent World Cup events, the Slovenian team was considered a contender for the junior world title and confirmed its role of a clear favorite impressively. Ursa Bogataj (97.5 and 95.5 meters), Ema Klinec (92 and 91.5 meters), Spela Rogelj (100 and 103 meters) and Katja Pozun (94.5 and 99.5 m) all presented remarkably strong jumps and thus left their opponents with no chance to interfere with their crushing lead of 222 points ahead of the second-best team, proving to be extremely worthy champions.
Already after the first round, the team from Slovenia had worked up a 120.5 point advantage over the second-placed team from France. And there was no room for false moves for them in the final round, either - the longest jump also belonged to Slovenian Katja Pozun, putting the cherry on top of an impressive team performance. "I'm so happy that our team's jumping is on such a high level this year. Although I was not completely satisfied with my first jump today, it was a great achievement for all of our girls, and I am very proud of them. Our coaches told us that if we stay calm and do what we can, the right results will also come,"was what Katja Pozun had to say about her feelings directly after the competition.
The runners-up and silver medal winners from France gathered a total of 787 points and were able to defend their second rank from the the first round. The French girls rejoiced muchly over this major success: "Winning the silver medal was a great feeling, of course the whole team is absolutely delighted with this result. We knew that we had a small chance of finishing on the podium. The fact that this has now become a reality is simply indescribable," said Julia Claire, who started along with her teammates Lea Lemare, Oceane Avocat Gros and Coline Mattel.
Germany with a podium finish despite disqualification
Having been able to ultimately reach third place was initially hard to grasp for Ramona Straub, Pauline Hessler, Svenja W¸rth and Katharina Althaus. Pauline Hessler was disqualified in the first round due to the fact that her suit was too loose in the crotch area, so the points for that jump were deducted from the German team's total. "After the first round, at first I didn't know what was happening until I was told about Pauline's disqualification. By then, I was sure that this would be a real challenge for us in the final round. It's absolutely incredible that we managed to make it to the podium even without getting any points for one whole jump. I am incredibly happy," said Katharina Althaus.
Hendrickson and Takanashi with strong individual efforts
In comparison to the previous days, Liberec showed its windy side again today. The strong wind gusts interfered with the trial round at first, however the race started on time and the wind even managed to calm down considerably at this time. In addition to the top 3 teams, five other teams were at the start on this day. Norway finished fourth and just barely missed the podium, losing but 2.5 points to Germany. Teams from Japan, Russia, the Czech Republic and the USA followed. The Japanese ladies also suffered a loss of points due to disqualification, as Yuka Kobayashi's skis proved to be too long in the first round. Sara Takanashi showed a strong performance as usual with leaps to 101.5 and 97.5 meters. Sarah Hendrickson got the chance to overcome her disappointment after the individual event and impressed with solid efforts: 96.5 meters and the longest jump of the day - 106 meters.