Alexandra Pretorius of Canada won the FIS
Grand Prix opener in Hinterzarten (GER) ahead of
Sara Takanashi and Katja Pozun. The German athletes
showed good performances, but could not keep up
with the best.
With jumps on 103.5 m and 102.5 m, Alexandra Pretorius
won the first competition of the Summer Grand Prix
2013. With 265.5 points, the 17-year-old came in
ahead of Japanese Sara Takanashi (104 m and 103.5
m; 260.8 points) and Katja Pozun of Slovenia (100
m and 97.5 m; 250.1 points).
"I like this hill here in Hinterzarten, it
was really nice to jump today. It was hot today,
but that didn't affect the jumping. We didn't change
a lot in our training compared to last year",
Pretorius said after Friday's opening event.
Second placed Sara Takanashi was not happy with
her result: "I'm not satisfied with my jumps
today, I should have made a better Telemark. I have
to improve this in the next competition and I'll
also concentrate more on the Telemark in training."
Slovene Maja Vtic (247.8 points), Jacqueline Seifriedsberger
of Austria (246.9 points) and Yuki Ito of Japan
(242.6 points) finished fourth, fifth and sixth.
With Friday's result also the second Grand Prix
season started with a win for Pretorius. The Canadian
already won the FIS Grand Prix opener last year
in Courchevel, France, (Ergebnis Courchevel »),
and later finished second in the Grand Prix overall
ranking (Overall ranking GP 2012 »).
About 1000 spectators at the "Adlerschanze"
in Hinterzarten saw a competition on a high level
in which the Germans were not able to achieve top
result. But Svenja Wuerth (7th), Ulrike Graessler
(11th), Carina Vogt (14th), Melanie Faisst (16th),
Katharina Althaus (17th) and Juliane Seyfarth (20th)
showed a strong team performance.
Best Austrian was Jacqueline Seifriedsberger as
fifth, her teammate Daniela Iraschko can't compete
yet due to a knee injury she suffered last winter.
On Saturday there'll be a mixed-team competition
in Hinterzarten, the men's individual event follows
on Sunday.