Korea swoops gold while hosting the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup 2016

Posted by Peter Burnside on 19/01/2016
Climber cuts loose in the background. Photo: UIAA / UIAA Mountains

Athletes competing in this year's thrilling UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup converged on Cheongsong, South Korea. Over 100 participants from 18 countries battled with their axes on the gruelingly steep terrain – here's how it went down.

Following the qualifiers and semi-finals, there was a great spread of nationalities through to the finals, with a special mention for Irish climber Eimer McSwiggan who pulled out all the stops and managed to qualify for her first ever lead finals in fourth place. Another special mention is owed to Iranian climber Mohammadreza Safdarian who also qualified for his first finals in join seventh place, the first finals for an Iranian climber too.

British climber Anna Wells made semi-finals after a great performance in qualifiers, but unfortunately it wasn't her day and she fell low down on the semi-finals route. Hopefully she will show the same determination in Saas Fee because there is no doubt she has got the strength to climb well in a World Cup finals.
 
After a below par performance in the preliminaries on Saturday, Vladimir Kartashev left the rest of the field in his dust as he cruised to a victory and his first gold medal of the season – just a few tenths of a second from a sub-seven finish. In the women's speed competition, Maria Tolokonina came from fifth in the field to take a decisive win and claim her third gold medal of the season (lead and speed in Bozeman).
 
In the women's lead finals, Maria Tolokinina again put in a fantastic performance, climbing higher than all of the climbers before her on the route and with only crowd-favourite & newly crowned Korean Champion Han Na Rai Song to climb. The crowd held their breath as they waited to see if Song could surpass the efforts of the pint-sized Russian, but a fall low down on the route relegated her to fourth place and Tolokonina took her fourth gold medal of the season. There is absolutely no doubt that Maria Tolokonina is on the form of her life at the moment.
 
In the men's competition, the Tomilov brothers both put in extraordinary performance. Maxim managed to climb slightly further than his brother and was leading the field in first place. HeeYong Park of South Korea, very much the crowd pleaser, managed to match the score of Maxim Tomilov in both height and time. The judges called for a Super Final.
 
Tomilov climbed first, looking fatigued in places and managed to put in a decent performance, reaching just over the half-way point on the route. Next up, and with the local crowd firmly behind him, HeeYong Park set off to put in his final attempt of the event. Losing his footing a few times low down, it looked as though Park too may have been worn out from two days of competition. However, as soon as he gained height and got into the steeper more difficult sections, he found his rhythm and composure and cruised past Tomilov’s highpoint and to the top of the competition wall to finish the event in style  – a swan dive off the Ice-Barrel volume at the top of the wall.
 
On his first victory on home turf, HeeYong Park said: “I am super happy because I waited for six years [for the gold medal in Korea]. There are so many Korean supporters and I won this because of them. I am very excited for the next two competitions.”
 
The tour continues in Saas Fee, Switzerland next weekend and Rabenstein, Italy the week after.

RESULTS

LEAD – Males

1) HeeYong Park (KOR)
2) Maxim Tomilov (RUS)
3) Alexey Tomilov (RUS)
4) Valentyn Spavin (UKR)
5) Nikolai Kuzovlev (RUS)
6) Janez Svoljsak
7) Mohammadreza Safdarian
8) Junghee Han
 
27) Tom Ballard (GBR)
41) Will Woodhead (GBR)

LEAD – Females

1) Maria Tolokonina (RUS)
2) Woonseon Shin (KOR)
3) Ekaterina Vlasova (RUS)
4) Han Na Rai Song (KOR)
5) MyoungHee Lee (KOR)
6) Mariia Edler (RUS)
7) Emir McSwiggan (IRL)
8) Maria Kuznetsova (RUS)
 
19) Anna Wells (GBR)
24) Victoria Harvey (GBR)

SPEED – Males

1) Vladimir Kartashev (RUS)
2) Alexey Vagin (RUS)
3) Maxim Vlasov (RUS)
4) Maxim Tomilov (RUS)

SPEED – Females

1) Maria Tolokonina (RUS)
2) Maryam Filippova (RUS)
3) Ekaterina Koshcheeva (RUS)
4) Natalya Kulikova (RUS)

We want to say a big thanks to every BMC member who continues to support us through the Coronavirus crisis.

From weekly Facebook Lives and GB Climbing home training videos, to our access team working to re-open the crags and fight for your mountain access, we couldn’t do it without you.

Did you know that we've launched a U27 membership offer for just £1.50 / month? And with full membership from £2.50 / month, it's never been easier to join and support our work: 

https://www.thebmc.co.uk/join-the-bmc-for-1-month-U27-membership


« Back

Post a comment Print this article

This article has been read 1675 times

TAGS

Click on the tags to explore more

RELATED ARTICLES

SkiMo Racing Athlete Meet 22 Nov
1
SkiMo Racing Athlete Meet 22 Nov

A virtual meeting will be held on 22 November 2023 to discuss athlete selection and qualification for the 2026 Olympic Games.
Read more »

RESULTS: British Lead, Speed & Paraclimbing Championships 2023
2
RESULTS: British Lead, Speed & Paraclimbing Championships 2023

A weekend of action was kick-started with a new British Speed Climbing Record and culminated in a fantastic day seeing many athletes vie for the title of British Champion. Here are the results of the British Lead, Speed and Paraclimbing Championships 2023:
Read more »

GB Climbing shows strong at IFSC Youth World Championships
0
GB Climbing shows strong at IFSC Youth World Championships

Boulder, Lead, and Speed – the GB Climbing youth athletes did us proud with tops, hops and our first ever Youth World Championships GB Speed medal.
Read more »

Post a Comment

Posting as Anonymous Community Standards
3000 characters remaining
Submit
Your comment has been posted below, click here to view it
Comments are currently on | Turn off comments
0

There are currently no comments, why not add your own?

RELATED ARTICLES

SkiMo Racing Athlete Meet 22 Nov
1

A virtual meeting will be held on 22 November 2023 to discuss athlete selection and qualification for the 2026 Olympic Games.
Read more »

RESULTS: British Lead, Speed & Paraclimbing Championships 2023
2

A weekend of action was kick-started with a new British Speed Climbing Record and culminated in a fantastic day seeing many athletes vie for the title of British Champion. Here are the results of the British Lead, Speed and Paraclimbing Championships 2023:
Read more »

GB Climbing shows strong at IFSC Youth World Championships
0

Boulder, Lead, and Speed – the GB Climbing youth athletes did us proud with tops, hops and our first ever Youth World Championships GB Speed medal.
Read more »

BMC MEMBERSHIP
Join 82,000 BMC members and support British climbing, walking and mountaineering. Membership only £16.97.
Read more »
BMC SHOP
Great range of guidebooks, DVDs, books, calendars and maps.
All with discounts for members.
Read more »
TRAVEL INSURANCE
Get covered with BMC Insurance. Our five policies take you from the beach to Everest.
Read more »