Chiara Kreuzer is back on the podium in Hinzenbach

Chiara Kreuzer beat teammate Eva Pinkelnig by exactly 0.1 points with 89 and 88.5 meters and 235.6 points and won Saturday’s competition in Hinzenbach. The winner of the day before came to 87.5 and 90 meters and 235.5 points. Third place went to the Japanese Nozomi Maruyama, who jumped the furthest in both rounds with 91.5 and 90.5 meters and was just 0.8 points behind Kreuzer.

“I’m almost speechless, just happy! I love this hill and the spectators supported us so well. Everything came together today, my two jumps were also very good,” beamed Kreuzer after her seventh World Cup victory, which was her first in more than three years. As long as it was for Kreuzer to get back to the top, the fight for the top positions was just as exciting, as Ema Klinec, who was fourth, was just 0.9 points behind in first place. It has never been closer between the top four in a women’s World Cup individual.

Nika Prevc, went her way up from twelfth to fifth place with a strong second jump and was 4.6 points behind the front, seemed almost clear. Exactly there was Katharina Althaus after the first round, who did not quite confirm her 88.5 meters in the final and fell back to sixth place with 85.5 meters. Selina Freitag finished 9th.

Compared to the competition on Friday, the Norwegians showed themselves to be significantly improved, so that with Anna Odine Stroem and Thea Minyan Bjoerseth on positions seven and eight, two of them ended up in the top ten. These were completed by Canadian Alexandria Loutitt. Slovenia’s Maja Vtic achieved her best result of the season in 13th place, while local hero Jacqueline Seifriedsberger was able to confirm her good impression of the previous day in 14th place. The same was for her teammate Julia Mühlbacher, who finished 21st.

The Slovenian Ajda Kosnjek, who finished 27th behind Görlich, celebrated her first World Cup points and is thus the first jumper of the 2007 class to achieve a top 30 result in the World Cup.

As 31st, Hannah Wiegele was the only Austrian jumper who was not able to collect World Cup points. Also no points, but at least the best World Cup result was for the American Samantha Macuga, who finished 38th. The Chinese Qi Liu, who would have easily reached the final with a jump of 89.5 meters, caused a spectacular takeoff shortly afterwards, but jammed on the exit and rolled sideways in front of the fall line. Luckily, she was unhurt, so her 36th place result remained collateral damage.