Sara Takanashi achieved a half century of International Ski Federation (FIS) Women’s Ski Jumping World Cup victories by triumphing in Rasnov.
The Japanese star headed to Romania after a frustrating couple of World Cup events, where the 50th win of her World Cup career had continued to elude her as she missed up on topping the podium five consecutive occasions.
She was forced to settle for second place yesterday to the in-form Norwegian Maren Lundby.
However, Takanashi was back on top today in the second competition of the weekend.
The 20-year-old would achieve jumps of 96 and 97.5 meters to end with a winning total of 247.3 points.
“I am very happy that I finally won my 50th competition,” Takanashi said.
“I was so much hoping I could achieve it in Japan.
“But Rasnov also is a very special place for me as I am holding the hill record and the people were supporting me so much here.”
Lundby would finish as the runner-up as her jumps of 93m and 94m would see her end with a tally of 241.9.
The podium was completed by Austria’s Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, who finished with 235.4.
Takanashi remains the World Cup leader with 995, with her Japanese team-mate Yuki Ito remaining second in the overall standings on 842.
In the men’s competition in Willingen, Andreas Wellinger would repeat his victory in qualification from two days early in front of a home crowd.
The German achieved jumps of 147.5m and 135m to top the standings on 242.3, while Austria’s Stefan Kraft was just 0.3 adrift in second.
Kraft had achieved jumps of 148.5m and 135.5m, but the judges scores saw him narrowly miss out on victory.
Austria’s Manuel Fettner secured a third place finish, as efforts of 144.5m and 136m gave him 241.
By Michael Pavitt
Republished with permission from insidethegames.biz.