Agency Report –
Germany’s ski-jumping duo Selina Freitag and Agnes Reisch emerged victorious in the women’s Super Team event in Zaō in Japan on Saturday, after a serious fall by Norway’s Eirin Maria Kvandal.
Kvandal jumped an impressive 102.5 metres, but lost her balance and fell. The 24-year-old was able to stand up and has reportedly not suffered any serious injuries.
The German team took the lead over the Norwegian team by 4.2 points in the final standings, with the Austrian team coming in third place.
“I’m really happy, I did not expect the win today. We wanted to show good jumps and have fun, so we’re really lucky we won,” Freitag said.
With the victory, Reisch stood on top of a World Cup podium for the first time in her career. “I feel great. It’s amazing. I feel better from week to week and would love to jump every day to improve myself (even more),” she said.
Freitag achieved distances of 93.5 metres, 92.5 metres and 94.5 metres on Friday, while Reisch jumped 95.5 metres, 94 metres and 99.5 metres.
To the surprise of observers, Germany’s coach Heinz Kuttin did not put Germany’s best ski jumper Katharina Schmid through to the final after she lost to Slovenian and new World Cup leader Nika Prevc the previous day.
The Super Team is a relatively new format. Instead of four athletes per team, typical for a classic team ski jump, only two compete for each team. Each ski jumper completes three jumps instead of two.
