Still low Speed/Olympic interest opens up for juniors

Even if it is just three years until the Olympic Games, and possibly just 24 months until the qualifications start, the interest among the best World Cup climbers are very low for Speed. In the last VC in Villars, not one high ranked female participated in Speed and only a couple males where only Jan Hojer showed good form. What's interesting is that Jan Hojer was #4 and Alexey Rubtsov #18 in Lead. Previous Youth World Championships have shown that the youngsters are more interested and also that they in general are better Speed climbers. It just might be that half of the 20 + 20 males and females competing in Tokyo will be relatively unknown teenagers of today. New not established top climbers to look out for might be; Sasha Lehmann, Filip Schenk, Pietro Biagini, Claire Buhrfeind, Elena Krasovskaia, Laura Stöckler, Eva Maria Hammelmuller, Andrea Kumin, Nathan Martin and Sam Avezou (16) on the picture (c) FFME) who was #18 in the European Championship last month. Last year he did 7.47 in Speed and is by that superior to all Lead and Boulderers in the third Combined discipline. Three more years and it could be he and Ashima Shiraishi taking the golds in Tokyo. Among the girls Elena Krasovskaia (18) is fastest with 9.49 and in the World Championship in Paris last year she was #29 in Lead, #6 in Bouldering and #20 in Lead. As it stands, she should also be a contender for standing on top of the podium.