Slovenia’s Ursa Bogataj has won the first Grand Prix of the 2022 summer. The 27-year-old Grand Prix overall winner of last summer prevailed in a close final ahead of Austria’s Marita Kramer and Nika Kriznar from Slovenia.
Top three within 0.2 points
Bogataj was 0.1 points ahead of Kramer at the end of the extremely exciting competition, the Austrian was leading with 0.8 points after the first run. Third place went to Bogataj’s teammate Nika Kriznar, who in turn finished just 0.1 points behind Kramer.
Nika Kriznar stated: “I was stressed because my jump in the trial round was really bad and I was worried. It’s nice to come back and just relax. I’m happy that I made it and was on the podium. I know I still have to work on my landing, but that’s just one thing. Tomorrow I want to be on the podium again and enjoy our top 10 results with Ursa and the whole Slovenian team.”
Ursa Bogataj said after the competition, “I am really happy about my result. I had a little problem with my landing, but this is something I still need to work on. I like this hill, but I think it is very difficult. You have to jump really well, otherwise, it’s hard to get a good result here.”
Marita Kramer stated, “I am quite satisfied. I know I have some technical problems, but I’m working on that and I’m happy that I could change something during the competitions as well. It gave me a lot of confidence because I know I can change some things and I can also improve my jumps during the competition, and try something different. I think it is the right direction, I saw where I am and I keep working on it.”
Fourth place went to Josephine Pagnier from France, who was even in second place after round one, but then didn’t have a good jump in the final. Directly behind Pagnier, Katharina Althaus was the best German, Selina Freitag could convince as like on the day before, 7th place for the sister of Richard Freitag, who ended his career as a ski jumper after last winter.
8th place and a career-best for Yuka Kobayashi, the sister of the two extremely successful Kobayashi brothers Ryoyu and Junshiro from Japan.
For the women, the Grand Prix continues tomorrow with the second Grand Prix in Wisla, start time is at 5:30 pm.
