15 October 2017

Sportmanship and Fairness must be guaranteed by IFSC

Reino Horak, former national coach for Sweden and now for Norway, has written an open letter to IFSC which he says sums up the overall opinion of both athletes, coaches and even some of the officials. Fairness of the athletes was lacking. "In the end, Xiamen turned out to be a good World Cup but for many athletes it was an anti-climactic event and IFSC needs to guarantee and work out guidelines so this won't happen again, especially with Tokyo 2020 ahead. Outdoor venues need to have a better plan for bad weather meaning that more protection on the sides as well as the top is essential. If anyhow a similar situation occurs, IFSC needs to assure the athletes that sportmanship and fairness are their highest priority. Some male climbers did not get a fair chance due to changing conditions in the semi and some female were not allowed to climb at all after the qualification. Imagine training hard and invest time and money to fly to Xiamen. In the female qualification you end #14 but due to a cancelled semifinal, after eight starters, you were not allowed to go for your final onsight challenge. Instead, you watch a final with 13 girls who all topped both qualification routes, followed by a final with 8 males who all did an earlier full semifinal. If all 26 female participating athletes had created the final, which would not have made the final take much longer time, everyone would have been pleased including the spectators."
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