Daniela Iraschko-Stolz earned her first win of the season ©FIS

Austria’s Daniela Iraschko-Stolz battled through the pain barrier to earn her first International Ski Federation (FIS) Ski Jumping World Cup victory of the season in Nizhny Tagil.

The overall winner of the 2014/2015 season was forced to settle for fourth place at the opening event of this year's World Cup campaign in Lillehammer, Norway, but returned to the top of the podium in Russia.

Despite suffering from back pain, Iraschko-Stolz produced a first round jump of 92.5 metres and saved her best for the second run as she recorded the furthest jump of the competition by landing at 97m.

It gave her an overall points tally of 242.6 to move above round one leader Sara Takanashi on the leaderboard, after the Japanese athlete could only manage 90m with her second effort to end on 238.6 points.

“My back is hurting so I was thinking about not starting at all,” said Iraschko-Stolz afterwards.

“But my team was supporting me, we worked as a team. 

“I was so focused during the competition, I didn’t realise the pain at all.”

The Austrian was joined on the podium by her compatriot Eva Pinkelnig, who climbed from 13th after the first jump to finish in third place, following a superb second effort of 96.5m.

Severin Freund earned victory in the men's event to extend his World Cup lead
Severin Freund earned victory in the men's event to extend his World Cup lead ©Getty Images

It saw her finish on a total of 227.8 points, forcing world champion Carina Vogt to settle for fourth place as the German could only score 225.2.

Takanashi still leads the overall World Cup standings with 180 points, but Iraschko-Stolz now lies second on 150.

Meanwhile, Germany's Severin Freund claimed his second World Cup victory of the season to extend his overall lead in the men's standings to 41 points over Slovenia's Petr Prevc.

Freud produced jumps of 132m and 134m to finish the competition with a total of 260.0 points, with Prevc finishing some way adrift on 248.5 in second.

Norway's Joachim Hauer scored 243.7 points to complete the podium positions.



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