Japan make history with maiden ladies' team ski jumping gold
BySportsbeat
Updated 16/12/2017 at 16:15 GMT
Japan have made history by winning the maiden ladies' team ski jumping World Cup after taking gold in Germany.
A jumper competes during the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Wisla, Poland on November 18, 2017. Junshiro Kobayashi of Japan won the competition ahead of Poland's Kamil Stoch (2nd) and Austria's Stefan Kraft (3rd).
Image credit: Getty Images
The team of Yuki Ito, Kaori Iwabuchi, Yuka Seto and Sara Takanashi dominated to take top spot on the podium in Hinterzarten, with a grand total of 956.0 points to their names.
That was largely down to Ito's jumps of 104 and 105 meters, while Takanashi also registered a pair of efforts above 100m, with Russia and France left to take silver and bronze respectively.
"This is something very special for us because it was the first team event. We are very happy," said Ito.
Russia's cause was aided by Irina Avvakumova jumping a new hill record of 108m in the first round, only for Maren Lundby of Norway to beat it by one metre immediately after.
The other Russian jumpers, Anastasiya Barannikova, Alexandra Kustova and Sofia Tikhonova, put in a solid performance for the well-deserved second place with 863.7 points.
And an effort of 107.5m from Lucile Morat helped France on their way to third place, with Germany ten points away from bronze on their home snow having been favourites before the competition began.
The Japanese team will have a chance to defend their gold medal on home snow, with the next round of the ladies' team ski jumping World Cup taking place in the new year.
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