England may be out of the World Cup in Brazil, but Great Britain is still very much in the running in the IFSC Boulder World Cup. Mina Leslie-Wujastyk reports on the penultimate round of the IFSC Boulder World Cup, where a silver for Shauna Coxsey keeps her in the running for an overall win.
Haiyang, China was the place to be this weekend (June 20-22) for climbing fans of all stripes. The 2014 IFSC Boulder World Cup Series pulled into its penultimate stop, while the 2014 Lead series kicked off and the Speed series picked up again after Baku in May.
This was the first and only three discipline Cup event being staged by the IFSC this year, topped only by the World Championships in Gijón, Spain, coming up in September.
The British Team didn't have any competitors in the Lead or Speed events so the focus was the seventh World Cup of the year. This was the second time that the circuit has visited China and all the travelling seems to have taken its toll on the athletes’ enthusiasm, with only 49 climbers attending the competition. The British contingent for this competition was ‘young gun’ Nathan Phillips and World Cup leader Shauna Coxsey.
The theme of the weekend seemed to be hot, humid and hard! With temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius and bouts of rain throughout all rounds, conditions were tricky for the athletes. This coupled with slopey volumes meant that the number of blocs topped was relatively low compared to previous rounds.
In the women’s, to qualify for semis one bonus hold in two attempts was required and to reach finals just two tops in three attempts was enough.
The men’s was even trickier with them just needing one top in two for semis and just one top in three attempts to make finals.
The women’s final was made up of the familiar smiley faces of Coxsey, Noguchi, Stohr, Nonaka and Wurm but joining them this time was the lead athlete Dinara Fakhritdinova.
The biggest surprise in the men’s was a final without the Russian Dmitrii Sharafutdinov who finished up in seventh. His rival for the overall title, Jan Hojer, finished in first place after a rusty qualification result. The others joining Hojer were Glairon Mondet, Ghisolfi, Mccoll, Narasaki and Chon.
Nathan made his first senior World Cup semi-finals and finished in a very respectable 16th place. The future looks bright for this youngster and it will be exciting to see what happens when his enthusiasm and strength is coupled with a bit more experience.
The finals arrived and it was interesting to see how the various athletes have developed over the season. At the beginning of 2014 it seemed that the women’s category had five equally good contenders (Puccio, Wurm, Coxsey, Stohr and Noguchi) but as the competitions have gone on Coxsey and Noguchi have steamed ahead, leaving the others in their wake. Both these competitors looked on top form as they battled for first place in Haiyang. It could have gone either way but this time it was Akiyo Noguchi who took gold, with Shauna Coxsey just behind. This will make it interesting for the overall title, as it will really come down to the wire in Laval to see which of these talented ladies finishes in the top spot.
In the men’s it was McColl versus Hojer as the only two competitors to top any boulders in the finals. McColl managed to top two blocs but then Hojer did the third and then nearly the fourth too! In fact he may have topped the last one but he (knowing he had already won) was busy helping brush Shauna’s holds!
So there it is, the second to last round finished and what an incredible season so far! Just one more to go……..
Rob Adie, BMC Competitions Officer, commented: “With Akiyo and Shauna's fantastic performances in China at the weekend, the Boulder Cup Series is now really a two horse race. In order to win the overall title Shauna needs to beat Akiyo next weekend, and with the japanese climber on the form of her life, Shauna will most likely have to add a third world cup win to beat Akiyo overall - its going to be a thrilling end to a fantastic season for Shauna and GB climbing.”
Boulder World Cup final results:
1st:: Akiyo Noguchi and Jan Hojer
2nd: Shauna Coxsey and Sean McColl
3rd: Anna Stohr and GiGi Glarion-Mondet
4th: Dinara Fakhritdinova and Jongwon Chon
5th: Jule Wurm and Tomoa Narasaki.
6th: Miho Nonaka and Stefano Ghisolfi.
Boulder World Cup GB results:
2nd: Shauna Coxsey
16th: Nathan Phillips
Don’t miss
The final round of this year’s IFSC Boulder World Cup takes place in Laval, France, 27-28 June.
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