Eva Pinkelnig crowned Silvester Tournament champion with victory in Ljubno

Eva Pinkelnig won the second-ever Silvester Tournament with her third victory of the competition in Ljubno.

The Austrian got revenge on Norway’s Anna Odine Stroem who beat her into second on Saturday, with the two finishing 1-2 in Ljubno and in the overall rankings.

Selina Freitag secured third in Slovenia for her first World Cup podium, but it was Nika Kriznar who moved up to third in the overall Silvester standings after a fifth-place finish.

Pinkelnig led after the first round with a jump of 93.5m to sit 0.9 points ahead of Stroem.

Lara Malsiner of Italy completed the provisional podium in Slovenia, her 123.3 points putting her 4.6 points behind Pinkelnig as she looked to improve on her best finish of the tournament of 13th in Villach.

The spirits of the Slovenian crowd were dampened after Ursa Bogataj was taken to hospital with a suspected knee injury having reached the final round in the 30th and final qualification spot.

Pinkelnig extended the gap between her and Stroem to three points to claim the win and the title with Freitag 7.4 points back.

Malsiner dropped down to sixth after the final jump as Freitag jumped up from fifth for her first podium, eventually finishing fourth in Silvester Tour standings.

Slovenian Kriznar collected her emotions at seeing her friend Bogataj requiring medical attention to finish fifth in Ljubno and climb up to third in the overall standings to become the only woman to finish on the podium of both Silvester Tour editions, finishing second in 2022.

For Pinkelnig, she continued in the new year where she had left off in 2022, ending the year with three World Cup wins and three other podiums, adding another win to her collection to strengthen her place at the top of the World Cup standings.

The Austrian beat out Stroem by a mammoth 26.3 points in the overall Silvester Tour Standings with Kriznar 50 points behind.

Reflecting on her victory, Pinkelnig said. “I’m overwhelmed with emotions, thanks to the Austrians who came out to Ljubno to support, they were loud.

“It is always a team effort, a lot of people work hard so I can sit up there and jump, I did an amazing job the last six days and I just enjoyed it.”