Takanashi dominates for Lillehammer victory

World Cup ski jumping champion Sara Takanashi sealed her 10th career win on Saturday when she soared to a convincing victory in Lillehammer's season-opening event. The 17-year-old, who had also starred in Japan's mixed victory on Friday, scored 286 points after jumps of 102m and 96.5m to convincingly see off Austria's Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, the 2011 World Cup champion, and 14-year-old Gianina Ernst of Germany who were dead-heated. "The wind conditions were really difficult today. But I was still able to win and this gives me a lot of self-confidence," said Takanashi. "The level of ladies' ski jumping increased incredibly and it will be very difficult to win also in the future." In the men's event, Austria's Gregor Schlierenzauer claimed his 52nd career victory, claiming the longest jump of the day in the first round with 105.5m. The defending World Cup champion followed that with 97m for a total of 288.5 points. Japan's Taku Takeuchi (283.5) was second with Germany's Richard Freitag (280.3) finishing in third spot. Results Women 1. Sara Takanashi (JPN) 286 pts (102.0 m - 96.5 m), 2. Daniela Iraschko-Stolz (AUT) 270 (102.5 - 94.5), Gianina Ernst (GER) 270 (97.5 - 97) Men 1. Gregor Schlierenzauer (AUT) 288.5 pts (105.5 m - 97.0 m), 2. Taku Takeuchi (JPN) 283.5 (99.0 - 100.5), 3. Richard Freitag (GER) 280.3 (94.5 - 101.0), 4. Anders Bardal (NOR) 277.1 (97.0 - 99.0), 5. Maciej Kot (POL) 276.9 (98.5 - 99.0) World Cup standings (after three of 28 rounds): 1. Gregor Schlierenzauer (AUT) 200pts, 2. Taku Takeuchi (JPN)159, 3. Andreas Wellinger (GER) 156, 4. Marinus Kraus (GER) 136, 5. Biegun Krzysztof (POL) 113 Source: AFP