– I knew it could be – She spoke Bełtowska when the competition was canceled after she sensationally jumped up to 131 meterssetting the hill record in Lake Placid and leading in the World Cup competition.
The eighteen -year -old Polish woman had never scored cup points before, and suddenly she was a leader, there was already a performance in the second series and she could hope for a very high place.
The Polish revelation was taken. She didn't care!
The ladies' competition was attempted to play in daylight, but it took place in extreme conditions, so it was canceled and restarted late in the evening. Originally, the players received very strong gusts of wind from various directions. Bełtowska was lucky – at the average wind with a speed of up to 1.69 meters per second below skis It flew up to 131 meters.
The Polish woman started with number 6 and led 14 players after jumping. Unfortunately, the number 15 Anna Twardosz was no longer allowed to start. It was blowing too much, the breaks were too long. There had to be one decision – cancellation of the series and annulment of the Bełtów result.
The announcer asked: “Maybe we found a new star?”
Importantly, the fields did not break this. – It was by far the best and funniest thing in my life – she said in an interview with Skijumping.pl. And a few hours Later, she showed that she was really well -focused on fighting again. Our junior in a restarted competition reached 116 meters and probably advanced to the second series. “Maybe we found a new star?” The announcer asked, appreciating Bełtowska's performance.
At the halfway point of the competition it was 24. It was already a great success for a girl who had never scored before and who this season six of the seven previous starts in the World Cup ended in qualifying. So far, the best result of Bełtowska was the 36th place from Willingen. Now she took the 28th place. In the final series, she could not cope with difficult conditions and a shorter invasion – she reached only 89 meters.
Polish leader almost with life
However, Twardosz presented two equal jumps. Up to 117 meters from the first series in the second she added 112.5 meters. And she even advanced from place 21 to 20. Our 23-year-old recorded another good performance. The leader of the team in the eleventh start this season for the sixth time scored cup points. What is worth emphasizing, the fourth time in a row entered to the top 30 and almost improved her life record, which remains 19th place from ZAO, two weeks ago.
Twardosz and Bełtowska really gave Polish women's jumps the best competition in history. It wasn't until the fifth time that we saw the World Cup competition in which two Polish women won points. But in fact it was not a feat twice, because Nicole Konderla and King Rajda did it in terribly poorly planted competitions in Willingen in 2022, where only 28 players and 23 players were classified.
Twardosz and Bełtowska pierced everything together
For two Polish women with points in normal World Cup competitions we waited six years, up to 2160 days! And the places of Twardosz and Bełtowska from Lake Placid are better than these Rallies and carp from Ljubno and Lillehammer achieved in February and March 2019.
Of course, the place of one Polish woman in TOP 20 and one in TOP 30 are not the achievements that on Saturday morning will become the most important news for Polish sport. But it is really worth appreciating what Twardosz and Bełtowska did in the middle of Polish night (the competition ended at two o'clock from Friday to Saturday).
Women's jumps in Poland are so undeveloped that Bełtowska is only the sixth in history our jumper, which scored in the World Cup (after Magdalena Pałasz, Kinga Rally, Kamila Karpiel, Anna Twardosz and Nicole Osoczenli). We had more winners in men's jumps than in scoring women. But if we dream that the ladies once achieve similar successes, then let's notice each step in the right direction. And on Friday in Lake Placid they were even jumps, not steps.
On Saturday, Polish women will perform once again in individual competitions (from 20.30 of our time), and then present themselves in the Competition of mixed teams (from 23:00).