Analyses and Pics of World Champ 2005

The World Championships 2005 in Munich was a great success for our growing sport. There were some 500 names from 45 countries on the starting lists. In fact, the success made it hard for both the competitors, the organisators and the spectators with very long days for everyone. Tomas Mrazek spent 17 hours in the isolation on the first day, and in total he was locked up there for close to 30 hours. ICC are planning to modify the format and we would not be surprised if they will try to introduce flash in the lead qualifications next year. 

It is easy to analyse what is needed to be a winner as all top-8 in the six categories, except three French climbers (45 out of 48), either (1) come from Eastern Europe, (2) train in Kletterzentrum in Insbruck or (3) are 19 years or younger. It is remarkable that about half of the top-8 men and women in lead climbing train regularly in Insbruck, including Mrazek, Usobiaga, Verhoeven, Petrenko and Kazbekov. The strongest Eastern dominance is found in women bouldering where all except Anna Stöhr (19) were from Eastern Europe.

Reini Scherer - trainer from Kletterzentrum in Insbruck "Everyone is welcome to train". Interview is coming up!

"No secrets, a good community creates motivation". "Next year, David Lama will be among the top ten".

The average age on the women's lead podium was 18 with third-placed Japanese Akiyo Noguchi as the youngster at 16. Youngest of the best men was 18-year-old Nalle Hukkataival, who finished 5th in bouldering. 

There has been some turbulence in Spain because of the discqualification of Ramón Puigblanque. The Spanish coach has resigned taking full responsibility of the debacle. However, on the Desnivel website the federation has expressed that the former Spanish coach did say that he thought the trainers of Patxi Usobiaga could have done more. Patxi and his trainers have responded, through the website of Patxi, that there was nothing they could do once the isolation had been closed. Ramón travelled with the official Spanish coach and Patxi's trainers had no responsibility to check if he had got the correct time. It should have been the other way around.

It was interesting to see that seven climbers made it to the finals in both lead and bouldering. Maybe not such a big surprise as the boulder competition format also favours onsight and endurance since the climbers have to do six boulders in 54 minutes, including anything up to 15 attempts. However, in the men's final the route setters had made two problems (a mantle and a bridge move) which were virtually impossible for route climbers.The routesetters did a very good job overall, except with the speed route which had to be modified and the qualitication re-started after several women failed to climb it;) 

Patxi Usobiaga topping out the final and salutes to our photographer - Jörg Zeidelhack	Emily Harrington (19) from USA, a sensational silver medalist. - I didn't feel I had any pressure, I just had fun.
Ramón Julian Puigblanque missed the changed isolation closure time and was disqualified. Otherwise with 90 % probability he would have been the World Champion. "The Championship was stolen from me."	The French in general and Sandrine Levet in particular didn't meet expectations. Eastern Europe dominated the women's boulder scene.

Kilian Fischhuber (22) from Austria. No trainer, climbs mostly routes outdoors. Interview is coming up.	Gerome Pouvreau (22) from France, 3rd in bouldering 2005 and winner in lead 2001.
Olha Shalagina (22) from Ukraine - winner in bouldering and 4th in lead! She also had a victory in speed in 2004. Interview is coming up!	Salavat Rakhmetov (37) from Russia - 12 boulders in 12 attempts. Outstanding! Close to 100 World Cup competitions since his first victory in 1991.