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The Japanese Sara Takanashi was also disqualified - and burst into tears after her jump
Photo:
LINDSEY WASSON / REUTERS
The longtime ski jumping material controller Joseph Gratzer has condemned the events at the Olympic mixed competition and severely criticized his successor Mika Jukkara.
"That was a disaster!" Gratzer told the "Tiroler Tageszeitung" after five women around the German participant Katharina Althaus were disqualified for their irregular suits.
In Gratzer's eyes, his successor is also to blame for this.
»I have the impression that he wants to change everything overnight and organize the control activities differently.
For me, he's not the right man on the pitch at the moment, I guess you were wrong," said the Austrian Gratzer.
The 66-year-old only gave up the post at the end of last season in March 2021.
Gratzer said about his time and the stark contrast on Monday evening in Zhangjiakou: »Our premise has always been: Material control should never be the main focus in a competition.
It is a marginal phenomenon that guarantees fairness and equal opportunities.
Apparently that didn't work out in this case."
Austria, Japan, Norway and world champion Germany hardly had any chances of winning a medal, the German quartet around Althaus didn't even make it into the second round.
The top jumpers Sara Takanashi (Japan) and the Austrian Daniela Iraschko-Stolz were also disqualified, then briefly declared compliant and then again irregular, which caused additional chaos.
A total of five women were eliminated from the competition.
The anger was particularly great because it was allegedly measured with different standards.
"Austria and Japan say in unison that they jumped with the same equipment as in the individual competition," said sports director Horst Hüttel from the German Ski Association (DSV).
“Everything was okay there, and now all of a sudden it's not.
For us, the suspicion is that the measurements were different today,” says Hüttel.
ara/dpa