Ski jumper Katharina Althaus said goodbye to 2022 with a podium finish.
In the third competition of the New Year’s Eve tournament, which was held for the first time, the 26-year-old from Oberstdorf in Ljubno, Slovenia, came third and was on the podium for the fifth time in the eighth competition of the season.
On Thursday in Villach, Althaus, second at the Olympics, took second place.
With jumps of 90.0 and 85.5 m (247.0 points), Althaus only had to beat Norway’s Anna Odine Ström, who celebrated her first World Cup victory with 91.5 and 90.5 m (259.7), and the Austrian Eva Pinkelnig (258.8) beat.
Before the fourth and final competition on Sunday (4:30 p.m.), also in Ljubno, Pinkelnig, who was ahead in the first two competitions, leads the overall ranking with 776.9 points ahead of Ström (753.6) and Althaus (740, 7).
Luisa Görlich celebrates best career result
Luisa Görlich (Lauscha) came in eighth place as the second best German and thus recorded the best result of her career.
Selina Freitag (Aue) jumped strong 90.5 and 94.0 m, but had problems landing and had to settle for eleventh place. Anna Rupprecht (Degenfeld) also suffered point deductions and ultimately came in 15th place.
The New Year’s tournament should be a step towards a full-fledged Four Hills Tournament for women. The efforts for the long-awaited series at the four traditional locations of the men recently received a big damper.
The planned premiere in the 2023/24 season has already burst, especially at the Austrian locations Innsbruck and Bischofshofen there are difficulties.
The women’s tour premiere will now take place in the 2024/25 season at the earliest. This hanging game causes a lot of resentment among the top jumpers.