Youth Cup: Multiple winners and tough fights in Harrachov

Over 90 participants from 10 nations, 64 boys and 32 girls, had a great first Youth Cup weekend in winter in the Czech resort of Harrachov. Two competitions per category, Youth I boys and girls and Youth II boys and girls were on schedule. The older boys jumped from the HS 100 normal hill, all other categories were held on the HS 73 smaller hill. The Youth I athletes skied 4 km and a sprint of 2.5 km, the Youth II ladies covered distances of 5 and 2.5 km and the Youth II boys skied 7.5 and 5 km.

Germany’s Jenny Nowak was the clear winner of both Youth II events for the girls. On the first day, she beat Slovenia’s Ema Volavsek by one minute and 7 seconds and Estonia’s Annemarii Bendi by one minute and 26 seconds, on the shorter sprint course, she won with 33 seconds on Bendi and 41 on Volavsek.

For her male counterparts, the fight for the victory was a lot tighter. Czech local hero Petr Sablatura won the first event with a time advantage of 2 seconds on Estonian Markkus Alter on the finish line, the third place went to Austria’s Florian Kröll (+0:09). On the shorter distance, Austrian Stefan Peer was successful. Markkus Alter claimed another second place, Poland’s Piotr Kudzia claimed the third rank. Both finished 11 seconds after Peer.

The Youth I category of the girls was firmly in German hands. Teammates Anna Jäkle and Marie Nähring split the victories, with Jäkle winning the longer edition of the Individual Gundersen event 3 seconds ahead of Nähring, who in turn won the sprint 17 seconds ahead of Jäkle. Austrian Lisa Eder was third in both cases, finishing 50 and 34 seconds later respectively.

Three names dominated the events in the Youth I boys category: Hannes Gehring (GER), Iacopo Bartolas (ITA) and Matic Hladnik (SLO). Gehring won the event on Saturday, finishing 28 seconds ahead of Bartolas and 40 ahead of Hladnik. On Sunday, Bartolas turned the tables on won with an advantage of 9 seconds on Hladnik, Gehring took the third place, +0:18 after the winner.

For the overall standings, these results mean that Hannes Gehring leads the Youth I Boys category with 430 points, Hladnik is second with 340 and Bartolas third with 270. Anna Jäkle heads the table with 360 points in the Youth I category, ex aequo with Emilia Görlich (360). Marie Nähring is third with 290. Jenny Nowak is the queen of the Youth II Girls category with 400 points, Triinu Hausenberg holds 395 and Annemarii Bendi 325. Petr Sablatura leads the Youth II Boys category with 245 points, Markkus Alter is second with 234, Piotr Kudzia holds the third rank with 202 points.

The next and final FIS Youth Cup events will take place in Trondheim, Norway, in March in conjunction with the World Cup event.