Katharina Schmid also impressed on the second day of ski jumping in Villach. In the second round she gained five places and jumped onto the podium. But at the top there is an Austrian woman.
Katharina Schmid is still in strong form. On Monday (January 6th, 2025) she missed her second victory in a row on the normal hill in Villach. In second place behind Eva Pinkelnig (95.5 meters/97.0 meters), the German ended up missing 7.1 points after jumps of 91.5 meters and 90.0 meters. The podium is completed by Slovenia’s Nika Prevc (90.5 meters/93.0 meters). Selina Freitag and Agnes Reisch also impressed with strong jumps.
DSVFemale ski jumpers defy difficult ones wind conditions
In Villach, Austria, the ski jumpers had to deal with difficult foehn conditions on Monday. Nevertheless, five DSV starters made it to the second round. Only Alvine Holz narrowly missed the final round in 31st place.
Selina Freitag showed, as she has done several times on the Two Nights Tour, the longest jump of the first round (96.5 meters). Only because of the slightly worse jury ratings she was in fourth place at halftime, making her the best German.
Since Katharina Schmid, who had won on the same hill on Sunday, did not take the jump perfectly, she was only in seventh place at halftime. Nika Prevc led ahead of Eva Pinkelnig and Lisa Eder. However, the gaps in the rankings were extremely close and promised excitement in the final.
Reisch shines and climbs in the second round
In the second round, Agnes Reisch was also able to build on her recent very strong jumps. Flyed 14 meters further (95.5 meters) than in the first round and landed in a good 13th place.
Katharina Schmid started to catch up in the final with a jump over 90 meters. In doing so, she also left behind her teammate Selina Freitag, who once again missed a second very strong jump (88.5 meters) and fell back to fifth place.
However, Schmid’s jump wasn’t enough for local hero Eva Pinkelnig; the Austrian won in Villach. Nika Prevc came third. Schmid narrowly missed the “Villach double” in second place, but regained a lot of self-confidence: “That was very good after the somewhat difficult Two Nights Tour.“
Big disappointment for Hollandt
Juliane Seyfarth was a few meters short of fighting her way forward on her second jump; she came 22nd with a jump of 82 meters.
Anna Hollandt was disappointed with her performance, the DSV jumper ended up 28th and appeared emotional on the ZDF microphone: “I’m feeling really bad right now because it’s just not working. I started questioning what I was doing wrong, what I had been doing my whole life.“Her best placement in the current season was a 25th place in Lillehammer. She clearly fell short of her own expectations.
Coach Kuttin draws a positive conclusion
The German ski jumping coach Heinz Kuttin was pleased with the performance of the DSV jumpers in Villach: “It was a very difficult competition, the wind was very different and it was very warm due to the foehn. That’s why it was more difficult to jump, but I’m very happy.“After a short break, we’ll go to Japan for the next competitions, where Kuttin will continue to rely on the currently strong team. He’s not planning on making any changes at the moment.