Prevc wins back-to-back events in Villach to continue sparkling form
World Cup leader Prevc wins again in Villach
Nika Prevc won her fourth FIS Ski Jumping World Cup event of the season with a 20.3-point victory in Villach.
The 18-year-old beat out reigning overall World Cup champion Eva Pinkelnig for a second successive competition with the highest scores in both rounds.
Prevc has now won half of this season’s World Cup events after recovering from a slow start that saw her finish down the field in the first three events of the campaign.
In the second event in Austria, the Slovenian already held a 12.1-point lead over Pinkelnig after the first round before producing the joint-furthest jump of the competition to sew up the win.
Home favourite Pinkelnig faltered slightly in the second round but did enough to hold off the challenge of Nika Kriznar, who finished 3.5 points behind her.
Kriznar of Slovenia capitalised on a poor jump from Japan’s Yuki Ito in the second round to move from fourth to third as Ito dropped down to fifth.
Prevc has extended her lead at the top of the overall standings with Josephine Pagnier of France only managing eighth in Austria to see the gap grow from 15 to 83 points.
The World Cup now heads to Asia for the first time this season with Sapporo, Japan hosting the next leg on January 13.
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