Vertical-Life
6 September 2005
World Junior Championships
All pitures but one from Dai Chen - Shanye magazine
Sorry for the delay in publishing this report but I had to go climbing in Thailand for a few days after the event (I know... priorities, priorities). This was my sixth World Junior Climbing Championships that I have attended (one as a competitor, five as a coach) and while I spent most of my time in isolation I hope to be able to provide some insight into what happened at this event. I appologize for any mistakes in this report as some of the data is heresay since I could not witness the whole event.
This was the first time the World Youth Climbing Championships were held outside of Europe and as a result there was a much larger than usual Asian participation but many of the European countries that are not used to the travel did not send a full team. This meant that there were more countries (37) than last year but around the same number of competitors (347 speed and difficulty). The competition venue was located outdoors on a spectacular structure situated in LonTan park, Beijing.
The competition ran from August 25-28 with the two qualifiers, semis and finals all run on separate days. The speed climbing qualifiers were held in the evening of the 27th and the finals in the afternoon of the 28th.
With the sun, heat and humidity proving to be the enemies of the climbers most of the competition was resheduled for the climbing to take place in the morning prior to the sun reaching the wall.
The first day of qualifiers was very difficult for all the categories. None of the forerunners made it to the top of the routes without falling or having to rest on the rope. In all only 4 or 5 climbers topped out their first qualifier routes with favorites David Lama and Charlotte Durif leading the way. The second day of qualfiers featured a few changes in the routes and some more flashes. As well, many of the routes were reused from the day before so the climbers had more insight and could talk to teammates who had been on the route the day before. None of the qualifier routes even went to the top of the wall!! Both days of qualifiers went very smoothly and only the last few climbers were forced to climb in the sun.
The semi-final routes were again very stiff with some top climbers not advancing to finals. Of note crowd favorite Ja-In Kim (winner of the 2004 Asian Championships) fell low in the semi-finals and finished in 22nd.
The day of the finals would prove to be the most humid and smoggy of the four competition days. Many competitors were feeling the heat in isolation while trying to stretch out and warm up their muscles. Heading into the finals only David Lama and Charlotte Durif had not fallen in the competition. Adding some suspense to the finals, young Austrian Jakob Schubert flashed the final route setting the bar very high for David Lama. Unfortunately for Schubert the route appeared to be quite easy for Lama as he barely paused to rest anywhere on the route as he hiked to the final anchor.
All the female competitors were to be run on the same route and none of them flashed it with France's Caroline Janual setting the high point to win the Female Youth A category and Slovenia's Mina Markovic making it quite far as well to win the Female Junior category.
The Male Youth A and Male Junior categories were also run on the same route, one that went up the steepest part of the wall. Only a few climbers made it to the lip and even fewer climbers could power past the lip moves. 16 year old Magnus Midtboe of Norway proved to be the strongest male competitor, despite being in the bottom year of his category, and fell right near the top of the route. Daniel Winkler put in a very strong performance on the way to winning the Male junior category.
Once again though the French dominated the difficulty podium with two first place, two second place and a third place finish. Russia had three podium finishes with Germany, Japan and Austria each finishing with two.
Russia dominated the speed climbing with 9 of the 18 podium spots including all three in the Male Junior category, with Ukraine taking 4 spots.
Special mention should be made of Russian Yana Chereshneva who placed second in the Female Youth A category for difficulty and won the speed event.
Final results - Diffuculty:
Male Youth B
1) David Lama (AUT)
2) Jakob Schubert (AUT)
3) Yuriy Dzybyak (UKR)
Female Youth B
1) Charlotte Durif (FRA)
2) Alexandra Malysheva (RUS)
3) Juliane Wurm (GER)
Male Youth A
1) Magnus Midtboe (NOR)
2) Felix Neumarker (GER)
3) Sachi Anma (JPN)
Female Youth A
1) Caroline Januel (FRA)
2) Yana Chereshneva (RUS)
3) Akiyo Noguchi (JPN)
Male Junior
1) Daniel Winkler (SUI)
2) Nicolas Badia (FRA)
3) Ivan Kaourov (RUS)
Female Junior
1) Mina Markovic (SLO)
2) Florence Pinet (FRA)
3) Fanny Conan (FRA)
Full results can be found at the ICC website .
| Picture Mike Doyle |
| Korea Team |
| Magnus Midtbö & David Lama - Gold |
| Jakob Schubert - Silver |
| Charlotte Durif - Interview is coming up |
This was the first time the World Youth Climbing Championships were held outside of Europe and as a result there was a much larger than usual Asian participation but many of the European countries that are not used to the travel did not send a full team. This meant that there were more countries (37) than last year but around the same number of competitors (347 speed and difficulty). The competition venue was located outdoors on a spectacular structure situated in LonTan park, Beijing.
The competition ran from August 25-28 with the two qualifiers, semis and finals all run on separate days. The speed climbing qualifiers were held in the evening of the 27th and the finals in the afternoon of the 28th.
With the sun, heat and humidity proving to be the enemies of the climbers most of the competition was resheduled for the climbing to take place in the morning prior to the sun reaching the wall.
The first day of qualifiers was very difficult for all the categories. None of the forerunners made it to the top of the routes without falling or having to rest on the rope. In all only 4 or 5 climbers topped out their first qualifier routes with favorites David Lama and Charlotte Durif leading the way. The second day of qualfiers featured a few changes in the routes and some more flashes. As well, many of the routes were reused from the day before so the climbers had more insight and could talk to teammates who had been on the route the day before. None of the qualifier routes even went to the top of the wall!! Both days of qualifiers went very smoothly and only the last few climbers were forced to climb in the sun.
The semi-final routes were again very stiff with some top climbers not advancing to finals. Of note crowd favorite Ja-In Kim (winner of the 2004 Asian Championships) fell low in the semi-finals and finished in 22nd.
The day of the finals would prove to be the most humid and smoggy of the four competition days. Many competitors were feeling the heat in isolation while trying to stretch out and warm up their muscles. Heading into the finals only David Lama and Charlotte Durif had not fallen in the competition. Adding some suspense to the finals, young Austrian Jakob Schubert flashed the final route setting the bar very high for David Lama. Unfortunately for Schubert the route appeared to be quite easy for Lama as he barely paused to rest anywhere on the route as he hiked to the final anchor.
All the female competitors were to be run on the same route and none of them flashed it with France's Caroline Janual setting the high point to win the Female Youth A category and Slovenia's Mina Markovic making it quite far as well to win the Female Junior category.
The Male Youth A and Male Junior categories were also run on the same route, one that went up the steepest part of the wall. Only a few climbers made it to the lip and even fewer climbers could power past the lip moves. 16 year old Magnus Midtboe of Norway proved to be the strongest male competitor, despite being in the bottom year of his category, and fell right near the top of the route. Daniel Winkler put in a very strong performance on the way to winning the Male junior category.
Once again though the French dominated the difficulty podium with two first place, two second place and a third place finish. Russia had three podium finishes with Germany, Japan and Austria each finishing with two.
Russia dominated the speed climbing with 9 of the 18 podium spots including all three in the Male Junior category, with Ukraine taking 4 spots.
Special mention should be made of Russian Yana Chereshneva who placed second in the Female Youth A category for difficulty and won the speed event.
Final results - Diffuculty:
Male Youth B
1) David Lama (AUT)
2) Jakob Schubert (AUT)
3) Yuriy Dzybyak (UKR)
Female Youth B
1) Charlotte Durif (FRA)
2) Alexandra Malysheva (RUS)
3) Juliane Wurm (GER)
Male Youth A
1) Magnus Midtboe (NOR)
2) Felix Neumarker (GER)
3) Sachi Anma (JPN)
Female Youth A
1) Caroline Januel (FRA)
2) Yana Chereshneva (RUS)
3) Akiyo Noguchi (JPN)
Male Junior
1) Daniel Winkler (SUI)
2) Nicolas Badia (FRA)
3) Ivan Kaourov (RUS)
Female Junior
1) Mina Markovic (SLO)
2) Florence Pinet (FRA)
3) Fanny Conan (FRA)
Full results can be found at the ICC website .
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