Shauna Coxsey achieved the best ever result by a British woman in a World Cup at the weekend, finishing second in the second round of the IFSC Boulder World Cup in Slovenia.
It's the first time the 19-year-old has been on the podium at a World Cup event but on the evidence of her performances this year, it won't be her last. The result comes hard on the heels of her fourth place in China last weekend and puts Coxsey firmly among the world's best.
Nine GB climbers were at Log-Dragomer for the first European leg of this years Boulder World Cup. Qualification on Saturday saw Dave Barrans qualfying for the semi-finals by topping three of the five boulder problems in 15th place. Shauna flashed all five problems and qualified for the semis in joint 1st place with Mina Markovic (SLO) and Akiyo Noguchi (JPN).
The competitors then had the evening to rest and recuperate ready for the rigours of the semis first thing on Sunday morning. Dave started the semi-finals in a field of incredibly strong males very well, by flashing the first and second problem. He unfortunately failed to get up the last two problems and finished the competition in 17th overall - a solid effort in his first event of this season.
To give you some idea of how strong the males were at this event - all of the men’s semi finalists had been finalists in previous comps, and every men’s finalist had won at least one World Cup (or in Rubtsov’s case, the World Champs.).
Shauna was in the last group of women out to compete in the semi's due to her joint 1st place qualifying position. She topped three out of the four problems only failing on the 3rd problem which required a huge jump from one part of the wall to another. Gaining the bonus point on this problem put her into 2nd place going into the final just behind Austrian Anna Stohr, who was the only one to latch the jump and top problem 3.
Going into the final, tensions were high and problems with the live streaming meant that there was only intermittent coverage of what was going on for people watching across the world. These problems were fixed half way through the final and it made for fantastic viewing.
Shauna flashed the first two problems with relative ease in a fantastic display of route reading and footwork and could only be matched by Mina Markovic competing on home turf. Due to her qualifying position Shauna was in the lead going into the third problem and it was here where she dropped her first problem of the final and failed to flash the bloc. Mina went onto flash the thrid and fourth problems, whilst Shauna put in a fantastic effort to hold onto second from the 2011 World Cup Winner Anna Stohr.
With 4th in China and now 2nd in Slovenia this looks like a fantastic start to the World Cup season for Shauna and we will be doing more profiles on Shauna as the season progresses. Next up is the Vienna BWC next weekend.
For full results of the Slovenia world cup please click here.
Full Team GB Results;
Shauna Coxsey 2nd,
The Senior British Bouldering Team is supported by Sherpa Adventure Gear and Lonsdale China.
Massive well done to all.
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