29 April 2014

Two changes for the World Cup

Eddie Fowke from The Circuit WC Magazine who will cover most events on behalf also of 8a, reports of two changes. "Chongqing China brought us the opening of the 2014 season and with it the first big news of the season which wasn’t even climbing related. Live coverage of all rounds has reportedly been dropped in favour of focusing on a better quality live feed of the Semi-Finals and Finals where the IFSC are looking for a network quality broadcast to better represent the action. This means that qualifications on the first day will no longer shown and many athletes now face the reality that their friends, loved ones and supporters may not get to see them climb. This change has clear negative ramifications for the athletes as less coverage means less sponsor exposure which is important to all climbers and federations. It also means the fans miss seeing the competition evolve as quite often the qualifying is a very intense round and it’s not uncommon for big names to be knocked out at this stage and there’s always lots of amazing climbing to be seen. The second big news was the rule change which brought the scoring of bonus holds in line with. Historically the climber only needed to touch the bonus in control for it to be awarded, this lead to bonus holds that weren’t holds at all only squares of tape on the wall. Now the bonus holds need to be controlled and used so the days of taped squares appear to be over. Also with the climber having to effectively demonstrate control on the start holds for both hands and feet the days of run and jump problems with the start holds marked well up the wall appear to be over. It was however interesting to see the route setters effectively circumvent this rule but setting a run and jump in the men’s final where the climbers stepped onto the wall with a huge volume foothold and basically no handholds (two textureless micro slopers) before running and jumping for the next handhold!
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