Jenny Rautionaho posts season best in Villach — harsh fate for Heta Hirvonen

The women's Ski Jumping World Cup continued in Villach. Nika Prevc returned to the top of the podium, winning the Villach stop with jumps of 94.5 and 94 metres.

Prevc has been consistently strong this season — apart from one weekend she has repeatedly placed well, reaching the podium in 10 of 12 individual starts, although she was fourth in the previous event at Oberstdorf.

Finland had three jumpers advance to the second round. The best of them was Jenny Rautionaho: her jumps of 86.5 and 89.5 metres gave her 13th place on the final list, which is Rautionaho's best result of the season. She was 15th in the New Year event at Oberstdorf.

"You can be fairly satisfied with the result. The jumps were not perhaps as good as yesterday in the free training and in the first training jump today. The second training jump and the qualification jump were again rather poor, but fortunately the qualification jump was good enough for the competition," Rautionaho said, according to a Finnish Ski Association release.

"So I improved a lot for the competition. The jumps are not quite the best yet — a few metres are missing. Little by little the pieces will fall into place, so I can be satisfied. Since this is one of my favourite hills, it's good to continue from here tomorrow."

Minja Korhonen jumped 83.5 and 87 metres and finished 24th. Heta Hirvonen initially qualified for the second round, but she was disqualified after her second jump because the measurement showed her body weight was too low relative to the length of skis she used.

Sofia Mattila failed to reach the second round and placed 32nd. Oosa Thuren was eliminated already in qualification, while Julia Aikia did not make the event because the air permeability of her jumping suit measured too low in controls.

Official result (women, HS98):

1. Nika Prevc (SLO) 247.9
2. Lisa Eder (AUT) 245.2
3. Selina Freitag (GER) 234.5
4. Abigail Strate (CAN) 233.4
5. Anna Odine Ström (NOR) 232.2
6. Ping Zeng (CHN) 228.0
7. Heidi Traaserud (NOR) 225.0
8. Nozomi Maruyama (JPN) 223.8
9. Agnes Reisch (GER) 220.6
10. Katharina Schmid (GER) 219.5
11. Jenny Rautionaho (FIN) 211.9
12. Minja Korhonen (FIN) 196.1
13. Sofia Mattila (FIN) 90.3 DSQ Heta Hirvonen (FIN)

Source: Finnish Ski Association press release.