World Championships 2012
Four finals behind us!

Day 4 of the ongoing 2012 World Championships has already become a history but the emotions it evoked are going to last long afterwards. Today, we could watch four final struggles starting with a pure killer, i.e. Men’s Bouldering Final.

The routesetters allowed the 6 finalists to warm-up a little bit and despite the fact that the first problem was graded 7B+ it appeared to be totally doable for all of the competitors. The next, also 7B+ boulder posed more problems as it had been constructed out of huge oval volumes with super small crimps and pinches on them. Still, one of the main favorites, Kilian Fischhuber managed to flash it without any sign of hesitation. The emotions were escalating as the finalists kept on falling  off the wall trying to find out the best tactics for the 3rd problem (only 7B according to the routesetters!). It consisted of a mantle at the very beginning and tricky traversing section from volumes to a bad crimp. The key to success was to avoid the swing which if occurred, gave you no chances to stick to the wall. It turned out that the boulder required less thinking and more climbing. It was topped out by Rustam Gelmanov already in the 2nd attempt and flashed by Dmitrii Sharafutdinov, who after a total disaster on the 1st problem (top in the 4th attempt) showed how mentally strong he actually is. Apart from the two Russians no one managed to even grab the bonus hold. The best competitor after the qualification round, Jan Hojer, seemed just too nervous and despite looking strong and determined, he climbed too fast and chaotic. Kiliian’s right mindset that was so visible from the very beginning of the final round was unfortunately not enough to prevent him from useless wheeling and dealing. The same thing happened to Sean McColl, who got lost in the variety of tactics he wanted to apply, which resulted in slipping and a last heartbreaker attempt when he eventually almost grabbed the bonus hold. It was enough to make his thoughts scattered to such an extent that he failed at the very beginning of his climb on the boulder no. 4.

 

Dmitrii Sharafutdinov during this year's adidas Rockstar event
(photo: Piotr Drożdż)

The last problem included a dyno and some precise movement along a huge pyramid volume. The first to top that one was Rei Sugimoto, then Rustam Gelmanov flashed the problem and so did Dmitrii. The breathtaking and impressive performance of the latter ensured him the World Champion title as he was the only one finalist to send all 4 boulders. The silver medal went to Kilian Fischhuber, which raised the question whether the Austrian would ever manage to become the World Champion at last? The last podium standing was taken by Rustam Gelmanov, also representing Russia.

 

The second final of the day was simultaneously the second Paraclimbing final. This time we could watch the fight of three visually impaired athletes. The best men after Thursday’s qualifications were Kenji Iwamoto of Japan, Nicolas Moineau of France and Matteo Stefani representing Italy. As each of the climbers proceeded on the 7b+ route one could feel electricity and magic in the air. It became obvious that these are the most inspiring athletes of the Championships. And when it was clear that the host’s representative had just won the gold medal, the audience literally exploded with joy! Silver went to Kenji Iwamoto, whereas Matteo Stefani took the bronze medal.

 

The first Gold for France - Nicolas Moineau
(photo: www.worldclimbing2012.com)

What a nice vendetta for the results of Men’s Bouldering Final event.:-) Everything thanks to Adam Pustelnik and his team of routesetters who managed to create a spectacular powerful 8b+ route full of interestingly shaped and set up features as well as varied holds. Since the women have recently become endurance beasts it became clear to the routesetters that they had to change their prevailing technique. Today’s line was shorter than the one from the semi-final and one could easily identify the crux sections. Focusing on strength and dynamics instead of endurance turned out to be quite stressful as Adam admitted that he’d been anxiously watching the finalists approaching more dynamic sequences. In the end, the final challenge appeared to be almost perfect. The first one to climb, representing France, was Charlotte Durif, who already raised the bar pretty high achieving the 42+ result (out of 52).

 

Charlotte Durif in the qualification round
(photo: Championnats du Monde 2012 d'Escalade)

The next three girls fell a bit lower, as in the case of Matilda Söderlund (39+), or much lower as it happened to Hélène Janicot and Evgenia Malamid (30+). The French and Russian were too indecisive and tried to statically solve the sequence that simply could not be done this way. Johanna Ernst did a great Job climbing fast and powerful and she basically looked solid till the very end of her performance, which gave her the result of 42+ and, eventually, put her on the lowest podium standing. The obvious favorite, Jain Kim, commanded audience’s respect already before the final. The Korean did more than well in the Women’s Bouldering Semi-final that took place earlier that day, achieving the second best result. The master of elegance progressed on the wall with precision and without hesitation. Unfortunately, she got a little bit pumped on a hand change in the middle of the roof, which took its toll shortly afterwards giving her the Vice Champion title (44+). The only one who managed to enter the highest part of the wall was unbeatable Angela Eiter. The Austrian defending World Champion presented impressive feet work and incredible determination that made her won the event with a decided advantage over her opponents (48+).

Ok, seems like we can’t help it… today was the Russian day! After Friday’s technical problems that eventually postponed the Speed climbing qualification round, on today’s evening everything worked well and the finals were held. The Women’s Speed event got totally dominated by Russia’s representatives. Out of 16 finalists, five of them were Russians and four of them took the first four places. In the Small Final Kseniya Polekhina ran against her compatriot and master of false starts (she made about 4 of them during the whole final round), Natalia Titova. Titova was two hundreds of a second better (9.22 to 9.24), which ensured her the bronze medal. Strong emotions were evoked by each of Yuliya Levochkina’s performances. The Russian beat her own world record twice (she set the record of 8.53 s this year in Chamonix)! For the first time in the semi-final run (8.48 s) and for the second time – in the main final as she completed the route in just 8.37 s winning the Championship. Silver went to young Iuliia Kaplina, who seemed to not endure the tension as well as her opponent.