Vertical-Life
Birmingham 2006
The first world cup in boulder of this year took place in this weekend.
45 men and 29 women competed in an event that turned out to be a great success with superb boulder problems. For the first time in the history a new format was tested. The best 20 in the qualifying round went to semi-finals and the best six in the semi climbed in the finals. The climbers were happy about it but had some worries about getting tired in the final, as the semi and the final were on the same day.
The women had the hardest schedule with the qualifying round at Saturday and both the semi-final and the final at Sunday. Olga Bibik from had the most powers in the final and won the event. Runner up was Emelie Abgrall from and the third place went to Juliette Danion, also she from . Anna Stöhr (17) from ended up #4, Chloe Graftiaux (18) from #5 and on #6 we had Celine Combaz from
This event was great French "show up" with 3 men and 3 women in the finals. The spirit was high in the isolation between the semi-finals and the finals. The French climbers enjoyed the time in isolation playing boule :)
The winner of the men?s event was Jéróme Meyer from France who seemed to have some difficulties on the very first problem in the semifinal and showed much frustration.
In the last minute he topped it out and after that nothing could stop him and he topped out all the problems that was remaining and finally won the competition fairly. Runner up was Killian Fischhuber from , last year?s world cup winner. On #3 was Cristian Core from , "I don?t care if I end up first or last as long as I give my best and push my limits".
On #4 we had Loic Gaidioz from France, #5 was Stephane Julien from France and on #6 we had Andrew Earl from Great Brittan.
| Olga Bibik has the most powers left and won the worldcup | Gabriele Moroni #13 on the dubbledyno. |
| Jéróme Meyer climbs convincing and won the mens event. | The routesetters did a superb job. |
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| Anna Stöhr ends up #4 | Cristian Core gave all and ends up #3 |
| Anja Hodann #9 | Killian Fischhuber topping out the 3rd problem and ends up #2 |
Killian shows his muscles, trying to scare the french team ;)
Stephane Julien wins the semi but end up #5
UIAA Climbing Deligate was Mr. Maco Scolaris who was very satisfied with the event, "no no, no problems, just solutions :)"
The new formate was a great success just like the whole event. I belive that having a semifinal for the best 20 will motivate many of the climbers to compete in the upcoming events.
Some of the women looked really tired in the final, wich is not so hard to understand. I belive that some of the climbers will do some more endurance training before the next event in Bulgary. The public enjoyed the show and the climbers were very happy about the boulderproblems. "The problems were great, perfect level", Daniel Dulac who sensationally missed the semifinal and ended up #25.
Text and Pictures by: Björn Strömberg