Olympic champion Urša Bogataj bags her 1st World Cup win ever

Linz – Reigning Olympic champion Urša Bogataj won the women’s Ski Jumping World Cup event in Hinzenbach, Austria, on Saturday in what is her first World Cup win ever. Her compatriot Nika Križnar also made it to the podium, finishing second.

Bogataj scored 249.7 points in a convincing victory ahead of Križnar, who got 227.7 points, and Austria’s Lisa Eder in third place (212.8 points).

The winner of two Olympic gold medals from Beijing in both the women’s individual and mixed team events, Bogataj kept her great form and jumped 93 metres in the first series and 92 metres in the second to become the only one to jump above 90 metres both times.

Križnar, who won bronze in the women’s individual event in Beijing and gold in the mixed team event, meanwhile made a jump of 85 metres and another one of 88 metres.

All five Slovenian competitors won World Cup points, with Špela Rogelj ranking 12th, Maja Vtič 13th and Katra Komar 25th.

Austria’s Marita Kramer finished fifth today and remains at the top of the overall rankings, having garnered 915 points so far this season.

Bogataj is in second place with 701 points and Križnar is fourth with 641 points.

“I’m very pleased with today’s match. I made two really good jumps. Yesterday there was one, today there were two and that was enough to win,” said Bogataj, 26.

“Another great match is behind me. I feel like I made a nice progress from the first to the second series. (…) I’m very happy with today’s performance and I’m also very happy that I was able to stand next to Urša on the podium and listen to the national anthem,” said Križnar, 21.

“We’ll have to start thinking about a triple win because we already did it today in qualifying,” added Zoran Zupančič, head coach of the Slovenian female ski jumpers.

On Friday, Bogataj, Vtič, Rogelj and Križnar finished third at the team event in Hinzenbach despite Rogelj’s disqualification after the first round. Having received 783.4 points, they were only half a point behind the second-placed Russian team. Austria won the event with 819 points.

Tomorrow there will be another women’s individual event at the Hinzenbach ski jumping hill.

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