Victory for Coline Mattel in Sapporo
After the Junior World Championships in Liberec, the Ladies' World Cup is now continued in Far East. The first of two individual competitions in Sapporo, Japan, was won by Coline Mattel from France ahead of Jacqueline Seifriedsberger from Austria and Anette Sagen from Norway. For Mattel it was the second World Cup victory this season.
On the previous day the three official training rounds could be carried out without any problems. Today, however, difficult wind conditions complicated the run of the first competition. After the cancellation of the trial round, the first round was started as scheduled, interrupted by a few necessary breaks. In view of the weather forecast as well as the athletes's safety, the jury decided to cancel the final round. Therefore Coline Mattel won today's competition in front of plenty of spectators with only one jump.
"It was definitely not easy to jump today. We had to wait for quite a long time and had to stay focused and concentrated. I'm glad that I managed to show such a good jump in the first round, so that I was able to win this competition. For tomorrow I will try to stay relaxed and to do my best. We will see what happens", the winner said after she jumped on 93 m, what meant 120,2 points.
Video-Interview with Coline Mattel »
The second place was taken by Jacqueline Seifriedsberger (AUT) who is currently the only Austrian athlete in the World Cup as her teammate Daniela Iraschko has to take a break due to her injury. "Somehow Sapporo is well-known for those problems with the wind. For sure this round didn't work out that well for everybody and I feel sorry about that. If it comes to me, I am very happy about my result and also my jump was okay", Seifriedsberger said (94,5m, 111,9 points).
Anette Sagen from Norway ranked third today. Although she was very happy about this result, she was not that satisfied with her own performance: "Today it was a difficult competition for everyone, especially because the wind was changing so quickly. The jury had to do a really difficult job. With my jump I am not totally satisfied, my coach, however, is happy about it. So maybe I am the one who's wrong", Sagen (87,5 m, 111,4 points) laughed and added that every podium place is a great achievement.
Among today's top ten there were eight different nations once again. Eva Logar from Slovenia ranked fourth and barely missed the podium, followed by Elena Runggaldier (ITA), Line Jahr (NOR), Sarah Hendrickson (USA), Atsuko Tanaka (CAN) with a good performance on the eighth place, Katharina Althaus as Germany's best athlete today on the ninth place as well as Katja Pozun (SLO) who ranked tenth.
Sara Takanashi fails to finish on the podium on home ground
Local hero, Junior World Champion and favorit Sara Takanashi was not able to finish today's competition on the podium, much to the regret of all the spectators around. With a jump on 85 m she ranked 12th at first, what meant also the final result after the cancellation of the second round. Nevertheless Takanashi keeps on leading the World Cup overall ranking ahead of Coline Mattel who shortened the gap to 144 points.