19 September 2016

"Upside-down" results confirmed in Paris

In Bouldering finals, the starting order is reversed in comparison to the semifinal Top-6 results, i.e. the first guy out in the final was the last guy to qualify. However, the competitor with the worst semi result is normally the best in the final. In the 12 events since 2007, the athlete starting on fresh holds has won five golds and three silver. Beside fighting with worse friction, the last person out has to deal with much more pressure. In Paris, Akiyo Noguchi was #1 before the last Boulder but she had to listen to the arena exploding when Petra Klinger did it. Later Miho Nonaka finished it as well and by then Akiyo did very well know that she was no longer going to be #1. Instead, she did know that she had to top to get the gold. Suddenly, the winner of the qualification and semifinal, who had also performed best on the three first Boulders, could not handle the pressure. In reality, only one of the girls had worse results on the last Boulder problem. Already in 2007, I started to talk about this "upside-down" result since I witnessed it live in Aviles and spoke to Daniel Dulac. He had won the qualification and in the semi he was the only person onsighting all four problems. In the final, he was dead last with no tops. Daniel said it was just awful to sit and listen to the others top out making the spectators go wild and as a matter of a fact, this was his last competition. What I am putting emphasis on sre five golds and three silvers out of twelve sets of medals. IFSC has to deal with this and find a solution.
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