Immediately behind her, Jacqueline Seifriedsberger also made it into the top ten in ninth place on Sunday. The victory on the large hill went to Yuki Ito, who won the first home World Cup victory for Japan in Sapporo since 2017 by around six points ahead of the German Katharina Schmid. The Slovenian Nika Kriznar came third, not quite twelve points behind.
In the sixth competition since her comeback at the end of December, Pinkelnig did not make it into the top four for the first time, almost 27 points behind Ito. As a result, the defending champion slipped one position down to fourth place in the overall standings. The Vorarlberg native is 131 points short of leader Nika Prevc (SLO), who was only tenth in the second Japan competition, having missed four competitions at the start of the season due to knee problems.
ÖSV head coach Bernhard Metzler did not want to overstate the mediocre performance in the second Sapporo competition. “I’m still satisfied, but we can see that we have to stretch ourselves, especially on the large hill, where the competition is tough. Basically, we can look at the start here in Japan positively with Eva’s great success,” said Metzler and referred to the changeable wind conditions that are typical for Sapporo. Third best Austrian on Sunday was Sara Marita Kramer in 13th place.
The onward journey to Zao follows on Tuesday. From Friday there will be three jumps on the normal hill.
Results of the women’s World Cup ski jumping from Sunday in Sapporo
- Large hill: 1. Yuki Ito (JPN) 230.1 points (124.5 m/129.5 m) – 2. Katharina Schmid (GER) 224 (122/129.5) – 3. Nika Kriznar (SLO) 218.2 ( 123/125.5). Next: 8. Eva Pinkelnig 203.2 (117/127.5) – 9. Jacqueline Seifriedsberger 201.4 (123/118.5) – 13. Sara Marita Kramer 179.4 (112/115) – 16. Lisa Eder (all AUT) 173.3 (108.5/114).
- Overall World Cup (10 out of 27): 1. Nika Prevc (SLO) 573 – 2. Ito 504 – 3. Josephine Pagnier (FRA) 492 – 4. Pinkelnig 442. Next: 11. Seifriedsberger 297 – 13. Kramer 274 – 15. Eder 197
- Nations Cup: 1. Austria 1,469 points – 2. Slovenia 1,351 – 3. Japan 918
