COC-L: Kykkaenen and Avvakumova share the win
After the last weekend in Oberwiesenthal, the ladies' Continental Cup continues now in Oernskoeldsvik, Sweden. And in the first of three competitions, there were two winners: Julia Kykkaenen of Finland and Irina Avvakumova of Russia shared the first place. The third place went to Russian Anastasiya Gladysheva.
Already after the first round it became clear that these three athletes would fight for the victory today. After the first jump Julia Kykkaenen had a lead of four points with her jump on 95.5 m. She was followed by Anastasiya Gladysheva with 94.5 m, close ahead of her teammate Irina Avvakumova (93.5 m). Fourth, already five points behind the podium, was Germany's Ramona Straub.
In the second round Russian Avvakumova could take the lead with the longest jump of the day on 100.5 m. Julia Kykkaenen, who was the last to jump in the second round, landed at 97 m and reached exactly the same total than the Russian competitor, so both shared the win with 246.5 points. Anastasiya Gladysheva, who jumped on 94 m in the second round, came in third with 235.5 points.
"I was just enjoying the competition and having fun today. The conditions were good and I was in a good shape. My jumping can still improve, however. I am not doing that well at the take-off. Before the second jump I saw that there was a bit of headwind and that the other girls jumped far, so I got excited about maybe being able to do a long jump. My result today is good for my confidence and it is giving me more motivation to work even harder", Julia Kykkänen said. "I saw the competition today mainly as a training session. I was focusing on my technique rather than on the result in the competition. I enjoyed the good weather and the well-prepared hills here in Örnsköldsvik", Avvakumova added. "Today I wanted to be the winner, but I am still happy about being third. It is great that Russia has three girls among the top five. My team is important for me", Gladysheva said.
German Ramona Straub missed the podium as fourth, but after 90 m in the first round, she posted a strong jump on 97.5 m in the final. With Sofya Tikhonova and Alexandra Kustova as fifth and sixth, two more jumpers of the Russian team, that is the biggest team in Oernsdoeldsvik with six athletes, could achieve Top 10 results.
Nita Englund (USA), Karoline Roestad (NOR), Pauline Hessler (GER) and Nina Lussi (USA) completed the Top 10, follwed by Charlotte Mitchel (CAN), Daria Grushina (RUS), Stefaniya Nadymova (RUS), Anna Odine Stroem (NOR), Tonje Bakke (NOR) and Jasmine Sepandj (CAN).
Russia's Irina Avvakumova now took the lead in the overall ranking of the Continental Cup with 150 points, ahead of Slovene Ema Klinec and Finland's Julia Kykkaenen, who share the second place with 100 points.
At 5:30 pm CET another competition will be held on Saturday, as a replacement for one of the events that were cancelled in Notodden last December.