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WOMENS SKI JUMPING USA NEWS | ||
Atsuko Tanaka, CAN ... Juliane Seyfahrt, GER ... Elena Runggaldier, ITA
If it were not for bad luck we would have no luck at all.
After two days of decent training, in varying conditions, it came time for competition day.
The ladies had respectable trial jumps and were ready for the comp to begin. The wind was not
consistent on the jump. It was pretty dead when we started, but then it picked up headwind for
a handful of girls with low bib numbers giving them a great advantage. Our US ladies were in
the middle of the order and the wind completely died right after Elisabeth's jump. It actually
started to turn to tailwind for the middle group of ladies and this had a pretty big effect on
Katie Willis (CAN), Brenna and Abby's first competitive jump. The tailwind slowed a bit for
the end of the round which of course helped. There were a couple of athletes in the late bibs
that jumped 10 meters farther than any other jump they had in training. The only Nor-Am
in a good position after the 1st round was Atsuko, who was in second position with a good jump
of 105.5 meters. Juliane Seyfahrt was in the lead with a jump of 109 meters.
The US ladies headed up for the 2nd round with a little faith that things can turn around pretty
easily with a good jump. Elisabeth pulled herself onto the bar and then had to wait for the yellow
light for 40 seconds before she was given the green. It was very bad tailwind and they forced her
to go. The next skier was put on the bar and then taken off because the conditions were so bad.
Ironically the conditions had improved since Elisabeth was forced to jump. At this point I
complained, as did a couple of other coaches, about the jury waiting until after they realized
a mistake was made before slowing down and waiting for more consistent conditions. Brenna was
the next to go for the USA and she too had a better jump but the conditions were just terrible
for this middle group again, and she wound up jumping about 10 meters shorter than all of her
other jumps the whole weekend.
It is a very tough pill to swallow when the ladies have better jumps and land shorter than their
previous jumps because of the conditions. Abby had a much better 2nd jump but landed just past
the 90 meter mark. At this point I am not a happy coach on the coaches stand and you can imagine
my frustration. However, I had the help of 3 other countries complaining about the wind conditions
for the US athletes and the AUT athlete. Skiers were not getting equal conditions, and it was
very obvious as we watched them have better jumps but shorter distances.
In the end Atsuko had to earn her meters in the 2nd round but still managed to finish in 2nd place
behind Juliane Seyfahrt of GER, who is jumping great. She won every single round this week in
competition and training so she definitely deserves the win. And it was easily the best day in
the ITA ladies ski jumping history with their finishes today
1. Juliane Seyfahrt GER
Maja Vtic of Slovenia had a crash on the outrun in the trial round. She hit the "rock-hard" hill
pretty hard and then did a couple of spins and rolls before coming to a stop. After being checked
out for a long time by the medical crew she limped back to changing cabin but was unable to compete.
Hopefully she can take a week off and return to the COC events in AUT and GER next week.
Tomorrow we head to Munich to pick up the older ladies and then head to the Black Forest for 2 COC
events and a team competition.
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