Nika Prevc is on the verge of repeating her success from last year on the Two Nights Tour. At the opening competition in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Slovenian showed her class with two top jumps and clearly secured the day’s victory. From a German perspective, Agnes Reisch was surprising.
Reisch showed her class in the qualification with 136 meters and a hill record. The 25-year-old also managed to deliver her performance in the competition. In the first round she reached 130.5 meters and went into the final in third place. But there she only jumped to 126 meters. The Austrian Eva Pinkelnig snatched the hill record and the podium place from her with 137.5 meters.
She should still be happy with the space. It is her best World Cup result. “II still had a score to settle with the ski jump. I’m glad it worked out that way and I’m just enjoying it” said Reisch at the Sportschau microphone after the first round.
Like in the qualifying, co-favorite Katharina Schmid had problems with the Olympic ski jump. The leader in the overall World Cup only came in fifth place after jumps of 127.5 and 123.
Last year’s winner Nika Prevc secured victory with jumps of 134 and 135.5 meters. The Slovenian won ahead of the Norwegian Eirin Maria Kvandal (128/135) and Pinkelnig, who landed on the podium with her hill record.
Friday cannot repeat qualifying performance
Selina Freitag was unable to repeat her good performance from the previous day when she won the qualification in the competition. After the first jump on 125 meters, the 23-year-old was ninth, in the final she came in eighth place on 128.5 meters.
Juliane Seyfarth made it further as the leader of the Lucky Loser list with a distance of 128.5 meters. In the second round she jumped to 134.5, but did not make a telemark when landing and missed valuable points. In the end, Seyfarth finished in eleventh place.
Wood provides a shock moment
Alvine Holz caused a brief moment of shock in the first round. In a duel with Katharina Schmid, she lost control while jumping and was just able to avoid a fall with an “emergency landing”. With 77.5 meters she missed the final. A small consolation as she finished 30th and collected a World Cup point.
Co-system applies
Compared to the last edition, the Two Nights Tour has been expanded to include a knockout system, which, however, differs from that of the Four Hills Tournament. The women’s starting field in the qualification was not reduced to 40 as usual, but to 30 athletes. In the first round, the athletes competed in 15 duels, with the pairings being formed based on the qualification results. The winners of the duels moved straight into the finals. In addition, the five best losers qualified for the final as “lucky losers”.