Americans a little too jumpy

BEAR HOLLOW — Timing and maybe just a little too much pressure to put down long jumps before the hometown crowd were possible reasons for some of the disappointment among the newly named U.S. women's ski jumping team.

Jessica Jerome of the U.S., ranked No. 3 in the world, put in the best two jumps and finished fourth behind jumpers from Germany, Austria and Norway.

Lindsey Van, ranked No. 2 in the world of women jumpers, finished fifth.

"I'm not disappointed. This is the first competition of the season and we had three in the top 10 and five in the top 12. These are, after all, the best jumpers in the world," said Casey Colby, head coach for the U.S. team.

Winning the event was Juliane Seyfahrt of Germany, ranked No. 5 in the world. She had jumps of 96 and 92.5 meters off the 90-meter jumps. Combined with her style points, she finished with 235.5 points.

Second was Daniela Iraschko of Austria, ranked No. 7 in the world. She posted jumps of 93 and 88.5 for a total, with style points, of 227.5.

Third was Line Jahre of Norway, ranked No. 4 in the world. She had jumps of 92.5 and 87 meters and with her style points finished with 222.

Jerome had jumps of 89 and 87 meters and finished with 213 points

Van had a good first jump of 91.5 meters but was late on her takeoff on the second and flew only 82.5 meters. She finished with 212.5 points.

Alissa Johnson, ranked No. 11 in the world, finished ninth with 207.5 points.

All five women on the U.S. team are from Park City.

In the world of ski jumping, a slight breeze, said Colby, "can add 10 meters to a jump."

Jumping protocol dictates that the judges try and determine when the breezes will come and turn on the green light. Jumpers then have 10 seconds to start down the slide.

As it happened, just as Jermone and Van left, the breezes died down. But that, they say, is all part of ski jumping.

"It's not an excuse and they did well, but I'm sure (Van and Jerome) are a little disappointed. I know they put a lot of pressure on themselves to do well in this event," he added.

The event is the first of the 2006-2007 season for women in the International Women's Ski Jumping Festival, which is included in the Continental Cup series.

The event will continue today at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City. Women from eight countries are entered.

Festivities will open at 5 p.m., with practice jumps starting at 6 p.m. Final jumps will start around 7:30 p.m. The event is free.

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