Jumper Prokopyeva takes off like a bird in Sochi

The country’s summer ski jumping championship has started in the south of the Krasnodar Territory

The Russian summer ski jumping championship with artificial turf has begun at the Olympic ski jumping complex in Sochi. The first sets of awards were played for women and men on the K95 springboard. The winners, based on the sum of two attempts, were Kristina Prokopyeva and the silver medalist of the 2022 Olympic Games in the mixed team competition, Evgeniy Klimov.

On the first day of competition at the Olympic ski jumping complex in Sochi, the champions of Russia on the K95 springboard were determined. In women’s competition, Kristina Prokopyeva won the unconditional victory. The athlete representing the Sverdlovsk region confidently completed her two jumps and was ahead of Valeria Rimdenok, who came second, by more than 10 points. Alexandra Kustova from the Magadan region won bronze.

The 23-year-old jumper from Nizhny Tagil is now the undisputed leader of Russian ski jumping among the fair half of humanity. Let us remind you that a month ago, Kristina, at the Russian Cup stage in Tchaikovsky (Perm Territory), won confident victories in all three competitions held – once on the K-95 springboard and twice on the K-125 springboard.

Prokopieva’s performance and, in general, the results of the girls’ competition on the 90-meter springboard were summed up especially for “MK” by the press attaché of the Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined Federation of Russia, Marina Kalinina.

– Christina’s victory is a completely expected result. She not only won the last stages of the Russian Cup, but also performed well at the Mountain Eagle competition here in Sochi.

I would call Prokopyeva the Russian Sara Takanashi (Japanese ski jumper, four-time World Cup winner, record holder for the most victories at the World Cup stages – editor’s note.). She has a similar style of jumping – she takes off like a bird and flies very far.

Christina was 10 points ahead of her closest pursuer. Her jump range is good and her technique didn’t let her down. She had the longest jumps on the K95 springboard. Visually, Prokopyeva flew 4-5 meters further than all the other girls.”

“Christina represents the Aist school from Nizhny Tagil, which now brings together several good and promising not only athletes, but also athletes. There is a good shift growing up there now. Ilya Mankov, for example, was second among men,” added Kalinina.

– In the next event of the Russian Championship program, the 125-meter springboard, can any of her competitors seriously compete with her?

– Alexandra Kustova performs well on our large jumps. Sofia Tikhonova also showed good results. So, we expect there will be an interesting fight.

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In the men’s competition on a similar springboard, Evgeniy Klimov won in an incredibly stubborn fight. In the tense final round, the 29-year-old athlete managed to beat the representative of the Sverdlovsk region, Ilya Mankov, by only one tenth (0.1!!!) of a point. The third place in the final protocol was taken by Vladislav Mustafin from the Perm region.

“Literally until the very last moment, there was intrigue here – who would ultimately take first place. In addition, during the final jumps a difficult wind situation arose – the athletes had to leave the starting position. But Evgeniy Klimov, an experienced athlete who is now in good shape, managed to cope with his nerves and snatch victory. But the rest of the guys are not going to give in. I think there will be a very interesting fight on the 125-meter springboard,” Marina Kalinina told MK.

– What is 0.1 tenth of a point in ski jumping? How often do athletes win with such an advantage or is it the other way around – a rare case in this sport?

– Of course, this is a very negligible advantage. But, if you noticed, men in general showed very solid results. You know, when opponents are of the same level, like athletes from the top ten at the World Cup, then in the final protocol they can be separated by 0.1 or 0.2 tenths of a point. This is not a phenomenon in our sport – this happens quite often.

– What does an athlete’s score for a jump consist of?

– The final score in ski jumping is based on the distance and technique of the jump. The jump itself is judged by five judges. The top and bottom scores are cut off, leaving the three middle ones. This often happens when an athlete flies further, but loses in technique. The score of the jump can also be affected by the correction for the wind; if the wind is tailwind, then points are added, if the wind is headwind, then points are deducted. This is done to give jumpers a more equal chance.

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Today, September 28, is the day of official training at the national championship, and tomorrow there will be personal competitions on the K125 springboard for men and women.