For many the Japanese team was the favorite
for the mixed team competition and they lived up
to their role. Japan won on Saturday in Hinterzarten
ahead of Slovenia and Germany.
The Japanese already had a clear lead after the
first round. In the final the others were able to
close the gap, but Yuki Ito, Noriaki Kasai, Sara
Takanashi and Yuta Watase defended their position
and took the win with a total of 907.6 points. Once
again Noriaki Kasai showed a great performance,
also the high temperatures couldn't change that.
"I really enjoyed the heat here", told
the 41-year-old.
An exciting fight for the other spots on the podium
developed behind the strong team of Japan. At the
end Slovenia, represented by Maja Vtic, Nejc Dezman,
Katja Pozun and Matjaz Pungertar, captured the second
place with the best performance in the second round
and 883.6 points. Matjaz Pungertar was the best
Slovene, but he still sees room for improvement.
"My jumps were not perfect, they were okay.
But I'm satisfied. Mixed competitions are very interesting
and something different."
Close race for the podium
The third place went to the hosting team of Germany.
Ulrike Graessler, Andreas Wank, who fell in the
second round but didn't suffer any injuries, Svenja
Wuerth and Richard Freitag reached a total of 873.3
points and repeated the third place Germany achieved
in Hinterzarten last year. The outstanding jumper
of the team was Richard Freitag, who scored 252.8
points and would have won an individual ranking
on Saturday ahead of Matjaz Pungertar and Noriaki
Kasai. Svenja Wuerth was satisfied after her first
appearance in a team competition. "I'm happy
now, this was a premiere for me. Team events are
always nice, also for the spectators. I think mixed
competitions are the future of ski jumping."
The Canadians closely missed the podium on this
hot and sometimes windy afternoon. In the course
of the competition Atsuko Tanaka, Dusty Korek, Alexandra
Pretorius and Mackenzie Boyd-Clowes had a good chance
to finish among the Top 3, but at the end 868.7
points were not enough. 17-year-old Alexandra Pretorius,
who won the individual competition on the day before,
was also the best female athlete on Saturday with
her 242.2 points.
Clearly behind the best four teams, the fifth place
went to the team of France (Julia Clair, Ronan Lamy
Chappuis, Lea Lemare, Vincent Descombes Sevoie),
followed by the Italians (Roberta D'Agostina, Davide
Bresadola, Elena Runggaldier, Sebastian Colloredo)
as sixth.
Last year the Austrians won the mixed team competition
in Hinterzarten, this time Chiara Hoelzl, Stefan
Kraft, Jacqueline Seifriedsberger and Manuel Fettner
came in only seventh. The four Swiss Sabrina Windmueller,
Gregor Deschwanden, Bigna Windmueller and Simon
Ammann finished eighth.
A total of ten teams competed in this event, meaning
that two could not qualify for the final round.
The Czech (Michaela Dolezelova, Lukas Hlava, Vladena
Pustkova, Roman Koudelka) as ninth and the team
of Russia (Anastasiya Gladysheva, Ilmir Hazetdinov,
Irina Avvakumova, Denis Kornilov) failed to make
the cut.