The first IFSC Boulder World Cup of 2014 was held against the backdrop of China’s biggest city, Chongqing, with a population of over 29 million. For the climbers, this first World Cup was a test: had their hours of hard training improved them as athletes? Mina Leslie-Wujastyk reports.
After two flights and a total of 19 hours travelling, we arrived with a few days to acclimatise to the seven-hour time difference. Arriving early gave us the chance to see a bit of the city, meet some climbers and have a little training session to poke our flight-sedated bodies into action. The climbing community were really welcoming and friendly – a special thanks to Phyllis for taking us to the wall!
The qualification was on Saturday 26th April and this Chongqing round saw its best representation since it has held the event: 40 men and 38 women competing from 26 nations.
In the men’s, Jernej Kruder flashed all the problems to come in first, and in the women’s both Akiyo Noguchi and our very own Shauna Coxsey also executed a clean sweep.
Most notable in this round was that the men and women both had the exact same 5th problem, one which many men could not complete, but both Shauna and Akiyo flashed.
Day two, and the semi-finals were on. The blocs were harder and the best 20 men and women were keen to see what they could do. For a lot of the climbers, this first World Cup is a bit of a marker, a test to see how, and if, their hours of hard training has improved them as athletes.
We were all put to the test and the finalists were decided. With Dmitrii Sharafutdinov and Anna Stohr showing the way, it was time to up the ante and really see what these climbers were made of.
In the women’s finals was Anna Stohr (AUT) Jule Wurm (GER) Akiyo Noguchi (JPN), Alex Puccio (USA) Shauna Coxsey (UK) and Marine Thevenet (FRA). In the men’s we had Dmitrii Sharafutdinov (RUS), Jan Hojer (GER), James Kassay (AUS), GiGi Glarion-Mondet (FRA), Vadim Timinov (RUS) and Jorg Verhoeven (NED).
The setting throughout the earlier stages of this World Cup was creative and fun to climb on and the finals followed suit. I won’t detail all the problems and climbing, but there were some impressive feats of strength, some breath-taking jumps and some heartbreakingly close calls.
Of particular note was Shauna’s performance. Shauna got off to flying start in the finals, flashing the first problem. In the end, she was narrowly beaten by Jule Wurm, but comfortably beat Anna Stohr, who had looked like her main rival for top place this season.
I interviewed Jule Wurm who took gold alongside her boyfriend Jan Hojer:
Mina: Jule, congratulations on your double win. It sounds like a formula for success – is there some magic to this? Do you perform better having your partner out there in finals with you?
(For those that don’t know this, this talented couple have both only won a World Cup once before (Innsbruck 2013) and that time it was also in unison. Not only that, but although both have made multiple finals individually, the events where they have won have been the only ones where they have been in finals together.).
Jule: It pushes me a lot to be in a final together with Jan. We spend so much time together while training, travelling or just hanging out at home, so it makes it much nicer if we both make it to final and are happy with our performance.
Mina: You were studying, but I hear you have taken a break to concentrate on the World Cup season, how has that affected both your training and your mind-set?
Jule: It was definitely a good decision to take a break. I have plenty of time till October, so I can also do some outdoor trips this summer. And of course, for training it’s much better if I don t need to go to Uni in the morning and then go climbing in the afternoon, but just go training whenever it feels good.
Mina: You and Jan spent some time in the US before the season started, did that compliment your training well or was that just a fun trip?
Jule: First of all it was a fun trip for me, because I trained a lot the weeks before and also this was the beginning of my holiday semester and I just finished all my exams. But it was also nice to see whether training had paid off, or what I needed to improve or change, after competing in the ABS Nationals. It was very cool to have a little change of environment after and before a long period of training mostly in my home gym.
Final results
1st – Jule Wurm, Jan Hojer
2nd – Shauna Coxsey, Dmitrii Sharafutdinov
3rd – Akiyo Noguchi, Jorg Verhoeven
4th – Alex Puccio, James Kassay
5th – Anna Stohr, GiGi Glarion-Mondet
6th – Marine Thevenet , Vadim Timinov
GB results
Shauna Coxsey – 2nd
Mina Leslie-Wujastyk – 14th
The next event
The next IFSC World Cup will be composed of both Speed and Bouldering competitions and will take place next weekend, May 3rd-4th, in Baku (AZE). For full results and a detailed schedule head to www.ifsc-climbing.org.
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