She won after only one round was possible owing to difficult conditions as she jumped 95 metres, giving her 121.4 points.

American Nita Englund also enjoyed a successful event by clinching her maiden podium finish at a World Cup with an effort of 94m, while Daniela Iraschko-Stolz of Austria, who won the first competition in Râșnov yesterday, could only manage third this time around.

German Olympic champion Carina Vogt, meanwhile, endured another torrid afternoon as she followed up her eighth place yesterday with another poor result as she languished down in 12th.

The result gave Takanashi her first victory in seven competitions, stretching back to the beginning of January when she sealed a dominant win in front of her home crowd in Sapporo, although she still has some way to go if she is to overhaul Iraschko-Stolz at the top of the leaderboard.

The Austrian currently has 782 points, 109 points ahead of Takanashi in second, while Vogt is the only other athlete who can win the overall title with three competitions remaining as she has 463 points.

Daniela Iraschko-Stolz added a third-placed finish to her win in the first competition yesterday ©Getty Images



"I'm really happy about today's result," Takanashi said.

"But still I want to improve my jumps in order to perform on an even higher level and achieve good result in the next competitions and in the overall World Cup."

Iraschko-Stolz remains a shoo-in for the title and admitted she was pleased with her result.

"This was probably my best jump this weekend," she said.

"I didn't have the best wind conditions and that might have cost me five to six metres.

"At the end the competition was very close and a third place is not that bad."

The final women's World Cup event before the World Championships is due to take place next weekend (February 14 to 15) in Ljubno, Slovenia.

In the men's event, held in Titisee-Neustadt, Germany, Norway's Anders Fannemel claimed his second World Cup win of the season as he posted huge jumps of 135.5 m and 143.5 to beat Kamil Stoch of Poland, while the Czech Republic's Roman Koudelka was third.

It was a day to forget however for yesterday's winner Severin Freund, who was disqualified after the first jump.

"I didn't use new, too long skis," he said afterwards.

"I have been using them the whole season.

"I was simply 100 grams too light.

"This is annoying but it's also good that there are rules that leave no room open."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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