19-year-old Haruka Kasai placed 3rd in the combined women's individual normal hill at the Nordic Skiing World Championships held in Slovenia, and won the bronze medal, the first Japanese medal in this event.
The Nordic skiing world championship was held on the 24th in Planica, Slovenia, where the combined women's individual normal hill, which has been implemented as a new event since the previous tournament, was held. From Japan, Kasai and Kasai's twin sister Yuna 4 people participated.
In the first half, the hill size jump of 102m was contested, and Kasai jumped 96.50m to finish in 3rd place, 28 seconds behind the leader.
In the second half of the 5-kilometer cross-country race, she showed tenacious skating in the 2nd place group from the beginning, but was overtaken by a Norwegian runner who was chasing her from behind, and dropped to 4th place for a while.
Even so, Kasai held on and fought for 3rd place until the end of the race, then overtook the Norwegian on the final uphill with less than 1km remaining, and finished in 3rd place.
Kasai won her first medal in the event, bronze, and her first medal for a Japanese athlete at the Games.
The winner was Geeda Vestbor of Norway, Hansen, who won her second consecutive gold medal.
In addition, Kasai's older sister Yuna, who finished 4th in the jumps in the first half, came in 5th, and 23-year-old Anju Nakamura, who improved her rank in the cross-country in the second half, finished 7th. Sana Azegami was 21st.
Haruka Kasai "I'm really happy to win a medal"
Ms. Haruka Kasai reflected, "First of all, I skated with something I enjoy in mind. I'm really happy that I was able to skate well and win a medal. I'm glad I was able to finish without giving up until the end."
On top of that, she said, "I want to do my best to win a gold medal at the 2030 Olympics and the next world championships," considering that it has been decided that the combined women's event will not be adopted as a new event at the Olympics in three years' time. I was talking to