20 February 2015

Resan till Falun 2015 - Trip to Falun 2015: Part 4: It's here, destination Falun!

Greetings! Our trip near it's end, but let's enjoy this revolutionary post: it is a combination of both Weekend Analyses of Ladies' Ski Jumping, Championship Edition, and Weekend preview of Ladies' Ski Jumping, Championship edition! With a bit over an hour left until the beginning of the Grand Finale, we'll move swiftly to the events of Thursday, 19th of February, and speculate today's results.

Thursday, February 19th, 2015, Falun, Sweden (Training round + Qualification/Trail round)

According to the race program, ladies had a chance to perform two jumps. Due to difficult conditions, jury decided to cancel the trial round, and organize qualification as only event of the day for ladies. First ever qualification of history in World Ski Championships in ladies's ski jumping was started with Virag Voros' jump. 15-year-old Hungarian's flight came to an abrupt end, as she landed at 57.0 meters (-4.4/0.0), scored 30.6 points, and finished 34th. Ulrike Graessler was the first lady to cross 85.0 meters' line: 88.5 meters (-5.1/0.0), and total score of 103.4 points gave her 6th place in the results. Julia Clair took the lead from German by 5.1 points, with a jump of 88.5 meters (-1.0/0.0). Taylor Henrich finished in TOP10 in every Wenesday's training session. Canadian flew 92.0 meters (-1.8/0.0), collected 114.2 points, and was ranked 1st, 5.7 points ahead of Clair. Chiara Hoelzl jumped 88.0 meters (-3.1/0.0), and finished 5th in the results with 103.9 points. Next jumper, Juliane Seyfarth got 4th position as a birthday present, as Seyfarth landed at 89.0 meters (-2.2/0.0), and scored 106.8 points. Norwegian Maren Lundby flew into TOP3, with her jump of 89.0 meters (-1.3/0.0), Lundby scored 108.2 points in total. Wednesday's 6th on both training rounds, Katharina Althaus was ranked 7th with 102.6 points, having jumped 87.0 meters (-2.9/0.0). Last jumper to qualify, was Susanna Forsstroem from Finland.

All of TOP10 jumpers appeared on the hill. Best total score was achieved by Yuki Ito, who flew 89.5 meters (-0.8/0.0), with score of 58.2 points. Carina Vogt's result was also promising: German landed at 87.0 meters (+2.6/0.0), and finished 1.6 points behind Ito. Jacqueline Seifriedsberger finished 3rd by scoring 55.2 points, and a jump of 87.5 meters (+0.2/0.0). Daniela Iraschko-Stolz 87.5 meters (-0.3/0.0), Sara Takanashi 87.0 meters (+0.5/0.0) and Sarah Hendrickson 87.0 meters (+0.4/0.0) 4th, 5th and 6th within 0.3 points! In comparison to previously mentioned jumpers, Taylor Henrich, first ever winner of qualifying in the Championships, gathered from wind and jump 62.2 points in total, so Henrich was the best! On the other hand she had wind towards herself, unlike most of the TOP10 jumpers.

Judging by first four training rounds, there are several candidates to win the World Championship, and finish on podium: World Champion of 2011, and silver medalist from the Olympic Games 2014, Iraschko-Stolz has a lot of experience from pressurizing situations. The defending World Champion from Val di Fiemme, Sarah Hendrickson has improved jump by jump, and she's returning to her best shape. Olympic Champion from Sochi, Carina Vogt, has a habit to show her best in the competitions. Hopefully she'll do that again, but I'm sure that German will get a medal, Championship is also in her reach. Sara Takanashi won twice Overall World Cup standings, and took silver in Val di Fiemme, and has jumped very well in Falun, which makes her also another good canditate for the Championship. Taylor Henrich has shown incredible jumps in Falun, and the win of qualification might have given her some extra which might carry her on podium. Bronze medalist from Val di Fiemme, Jacqueline Seifriedsberger shall not be forgotten, and other possible surprises might be caused by Katharina Althaus, Jessica Jerome, Ulrike Graessler, and Maren Lundby.

Last trial round before the Grand Finale finished about 20 minutes ago, and results were:
1. Ito JPN 94.0 meters, 2 Iraschko-Stolz AUT, 3. Henrich CAN, 4. Hendrickson USA, 5. Taknashi JPN, 6. Vogt GER 91.0 meters, 7. Seifriedsberger AUT. Vogt lost a bit over 6 points to Ito, which means 3-3.5 meters depending on style points. My dream podium is: 1. Vogt GER, 2. Hendirkcson USA, 3. Henrich CAN. Based on the training results, more likely podium, and my eventual choice is: 1. Vogt GER, 2. Ito JPN, 3. Takanashi JPN. Hopefully Vogt will win, or at least finish on podium! Let's enjoy the finale! This is also the conclusion of our journey! It's time to say: Tack för allt! This means, thank you for everything, I wish you very enjoyable World Championships! Don't forget to follow, to find out the results, and detailed information about competitions! Njut av din dag!

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