March 2, 2006 ZAO JAPAN by Casey Colby & Alissa Johnson

Casey's comments:
More like winter today, some new snow, instead of rain, and much colder temperatures. The boys jumped before us this morning and once the ladies started their event, without a trial round, we realized that the girls had less speed than the boys, oops. With decent wind on the knoll and nothing after 45 meters, it was really tough, making the jumps much shorter for the first round. But once the jury figured out the wind and the speed it got a lot more exciting and fun for everyone. There was also a bigger crowd today and even more press and TV people.

The jumping today had a little bit of a yo-yo effect for some folks. Most people had one good jump and weird jump, due to the ever changing conditions from the top to the bottom of the jump. We have been in a big rush since the event ended because we are in need of packing up and getting on a bus for 6 hours to get back to Tokyo for our flight to Norway.

Another very impressive day for the American Ladies, and the 3rd win for Lindsey this season, and it was the best finish and first podium for Japan's Izumi Yamada.

Results from today:

1. Lindsey Van USA     2. Anette Sagen NOR     3. Izumi Yamada JPN     4. Juliane Seyfahrt GER     5. Alissa Johnson USA     6. Daniela Iraschko AUT     9. Jessica Jerome USA   12. Abby Hughes USA   13. Brenna Ellis USA

Alissa's comments:
Konnichiha (Atsuko guarantees us that the spelling is correct).

Today was the last day of our competitions in Japan. The weather wasn't great, but it was a big improvement from yesterday. I have really enjoyed my time here in Japan and I wish we weren't leaving. The hotel we have been staying in has been much nicer than we all expected. It's kind of old fashioned, you have to take of your shoes before you walk into the room, the floors are all bamboo, and we all stayed in one room with roll out mats on the floor. The hotel is also right in the middle of the ski run, and YES! we did take a couple of runs after our official training. FOOD is AWSOME! So, Basically we all hope to come back next year.

AS for the competition, things went off fairly smooth considering the poor weather. The hill crew did a great job all week keeping the hills in great shape considering how many jumpers there were (also a men's FIS CUP).

Today, I had my best finish so far in my career (5th), and Lindsey took home gold again for the US. Jessica struggled with wind in the first round, and had a mediocre day, finishing in 9th. Abby had one poor jump followed by one awesome jump and moved up four spots to 12th. Brenna took home 13th for the second day in a row.

Now we are all heading for Tokyo for the night in order to catch our plane to Norway tomorrow afternoon. Don't worry its only 13 hour flight, should be a good time. As for me, I'll have been in 6 countries in two weeks, still feeling a bit under the weather but am having a good time.