Japan’s Sara Takanashi clinches World Cup ski jumping title
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Second placed Japan’s Sara Takanashi, left, gets a high-five with winner Japan’s Yuki Ito, right, during the award ceremony for the Normal Hill Individual of the FIS Ski Jumping World Cup in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea >> Sara Takanashi of Japan clinched her fourth World Cup ski jumping overall series title on Wednesday with a second-place finish in a test event at Pyeongchang, site of the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Yuki Ito won the World Cup normal hill event with 234.4 points, Takanashi had 224.9 and third-place finisher Ema Klinec of Slovenia had 218.7.
Takanashi moved to 1,275 points for the season. But with only two competitions left, including another event Thursday at Pyeongchang, Ito, 247 points behind, cannot catch her Japanese teammate.
Stefan Kraft of Austria had the best jump in both rounds to win the men’s event Wednesday. His jumps of 138 and 137.5 meters gave him 293.5 points. Andreas Wellinger of Germany was second with 279.8, while World Cup series leader Kamil Stoch of Poland was third with 268.2.
Stoch has 1,240 points to lead the men’s standings, but Kraft is just 100 points behind in second. The men also have a second race Thursday in Pyeongchang.
