feeling! Canada’s Alexandra Lottet is crowned world champion in the big hills in Planica – Katarina Althaus takes bronze

The Planica World Championships have a buzz: Canada’s Alexandra Lottet flies to the gold medal on the big hill. But Katarina Althaus did not go empty-handed at the last competition either – she sailed to the bronze medal.

The 54th Nordic World Ski Championships is a big sensation: For the first time ever, Canada wins a medal in ski jumping – and then immediately gold! Alexandria Lotet sailed 134.5m and 136.5m on the big hill in Planica in the evening and scored 264.4 points. She beat Maren Lundby by 10.4 points. After recording a hill of 139.5m, the defending Norwegian champion cleared 133m and 250 in the final. But even three-time world champion Katharina Althaus didn’t go away empty-handed: She took home the bronze in 120.5 and 128 meters and 245.9 points.

“I was in my own world going into this competition and just focused on my jumps. Adding this medal to my collection feels great,” said the 19-year-old, who won the junior world title just a month earlier. Lottet was already celebrating her first win At the World Cup in Zao this season, the fact that she won now comes as a surprise, especially since she shared first place with Lundby after the first round and is by far the most experienced of the top jumpers.

Althaus “Very Happy” in Bronze

“I’m so happy! I’ve never won a bronze before, but it feels good. I was so nervous before the two jumps, but the second jump was especially good. I’ll definitely need a few weeks to process that,” Althaus said in an interview. Eurosport”. Even if that wasn’t enough for a three-point medal, Nozomi Maruyama was also happy. It was the fourth best Japanese. With Eva Pinkling and Chiara Kreuzer in sixth and ninth, as well as Emma Klinik and Nika Kreznar, two Austrians and two Slovenes can be found in the top ten.

Meanwhile, Lundby was visibly impressed on Norwegian broadcaster NRK: “This day has far exceeded all my expectations. I knew yesterday there were opportunities for me, but I also knew that getting a medal would be too much. I was unsettled.” Very and after everything that’s happened over the past couple of years… I was just here to get in.” Her teammates Anna Odin-Ström and Tia Mignan-Pjörseth also had top-ten finishes of fifth and eighth.

For Norwegian fourth player Celje Obseth it looked like the next disappointment after a daring first attempt at 114 metres. But with 128.5m she managed the fifth-best jump in the final, which moved her up to sixteenth place in twelve places. Jenny Ratuonahoe, Josephine Bagnier, Kei Liu, Lara Malciner and Kinga Rajda finished 13th, 14th, 20th, 22nd and 23rd and had the best big hill results for Finland, France, China, Italy and Poland at the World Championships. Ragda also announced the end of her career with the message “Last Dance” on her gloves.

Attachment to the gate causes controversy

While that last round went well and got me out on the 18th hole from start to finish, the dissatisfaction with the rushing jury’s modus operandi was evident in the first round. The changing of the gate was made a total of seven times, which seemed disproportionate despite the changing winds. “From our point of view, it is advisable to wait sometimes until everyone is on the same terms as possible. Either with a tailwind, or with an updraft or zero,” national team coach Maximilian Michler tells ARD.

With Selina Freitag, she also injured an athlete. She was the first jumper to jump from Gate 17 and certainly wasn’t accepted by the wind. On the other hand, the frustration after the 28th place in the first half was great. With 124 metres, she fought her way to a 19th-place finish in the final, but didn’t turn heads even after this successful attempt. Pauline Hessler, who finished 26th, remarked that she imagined her World Cup debut differently. The other two Austrians, Sarah Marita Kramer and Julia Müllbacher, didn’t seem dissatisfied with their twelfth and eighteenth-place finishes.

Infinite for Switzerland

With Sina Arendt and Emilie Turazza, two Swiss women competed in the individual competition for the World Championships for the first time. However, in the 33rd and 36th places, both Swiss Confederation players finished up after the first round. A little later, Nika Prevc had an unsuccessful performance: first, she was the only athlete in the entire competition who jumped off the ski jumping table too early and then came in too aggressively for the help. The result was identical to 103.5 meters, and the 40th and last place. Apart from that, it was the best individual World Championship result on hills for seven of the ten jumpers who did not qualify for the final.

With today’s big hill individual, the Nordic Ski World Championships in Planica have come to an end for the snowboarders. The next competitions are then scheduled for March 10-12 in Oslo, where the Raw Air Tour kicks off at the legendary Holmenkollen (everything lives in skijumping.com).

More on that here at skisprung.com.