Archive
World Cup Round Ups for 2015 Season
Well, sorry to say I didn’t manage to write anything about any of the IFSCWC Bouldering events this season. It was a short but quite exciting season, and I did watch all the comps and do podcast roundups with John Blomquist of Chalk Talk Climbing Podcast. If you are interested in our rambling about the events, check out the podcast here:
#5 Munich (World Championship)
John and I will probably do this next season as well and we want to talk about what you want to hear about, so let us know at chalktalk@mantlepressmedia.com
IFSC Bouldering World Cup 2015 #1 – Toronto + CWA Dyno Comp & Stuff…
Toronto happened last weekend and my climbing hold company Kilter was proud to be the hold sponsor. I didn’t get to watch it on time (watched it later) so no full coverage here but my friend John over at Mantle Press Media and I had a conversation about the event for his podcast Chalk Talk. You can listen to it (and find other great podcasts with a variety of climbers and industry folks) on iTunes or over at his site http://www.mantlepressmedia.com. Listen to our conversation and rewatch semis and finals here:
I was busy with the Climbing Wall Association Conference and Setter Showdown at Earth Treks Golden all weekend. We threw a big after party for the CWA at The Spot on Saturday and had another crazy dyno comp with tons of holds from Enix, Element, Kingdom, Nicros, Kilter, UP, Enterprises, Rock Candy, and Metolius. We’re taking some of the dynos down to make some wall space and preserve the problems we had up before cramming so many holds on that wall but don’t worry, some will stay up.
The Setter Showdown was a setting competition in Golden where 24 setters from different gyms came to test themselves in 3 rounds. When the day was over each setter had set 3 problems–two individual and one coset–on pre-assigned walls with pre-assigned holds and pre-assigned grades. The judges, who were Louie Anderson, Mike Helt, and myself, had to watch the setters and give scores for how functional and creative the problems were and how technically adept the setters were. It was a long two days and fairly difficult to judge but everyone had a good time I think and lots of friendships were formed. There should be a video coming soon and I’ll post it.
That’s all for now, sorry there aren’t more photos. Scour Facebook and I’ll post more soon.
2014 IFSC Bouldering World Cup #8 – Laval, France – Semi Results + Finals Live Feed
UPDATE: Here are the Semi Results with how everyone did on each problem:
Finals start around noon on Saturday, Boulder time. Watch the top 6 men and women battle it out. Overall season winners will also be decided. Jan Hojer has already won the overall for the men as Dmitrii Sharafutdinov missed semis. For the women it’s a tight race with Shauna Coxsey and Akiyo Noguchi so close that whoever beats the other in this comp will take first. Exciting!!!
2014 IFSC Bouldering World Cup #8 – Laval, France – Quali Video and Results + Semis Live Feed
OnBouldering.com has posted qualifier videos from Laval:
They’ve also posted qualifiers from several other comps this season including Vail. Check out their youtube channel for more: On Bouldering Youtube
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In Laval US Youth Phenom Megan Mascarenas has advanced to semifinals in fourth place! She did all 5 qualifiers and it took her 9 attempts to top (she flashed to all bonuses). Tied for 1st are women’s WC powerhouses Shauna Coxsey, Anna Stöhr, and Akiyo Noguchi, who all did all 5 qualifiers in 5 attempts (all flash).
You will remember Megan, as she usually wins The Spot Bouldering Series open finals and also has done well at Nationals and at this year’s World Cup Final in Vail where she took 4th. It’s fun to watch her show the world what she can do. Congratulations Megan!!!
American competitor Miura Hawkins ended up in 25th. Here are the top 20 women who qualified for semis:
For the men, our favorite young Korean climber, Jongwon Chon, has qualified tied for first with French master (and 2014 Vail WC winner) Guillaume Glairon Mondet. Many other favorites made the semifinal including Canadian Sean McColl who squeaked in in 20th place. Russian champion Dmitrii Sharafutdinov missed semifinals for the first time in a long time, ending up in a heartbreaking 21st. He would have needed one more top to get through. American and Spot fixture Nathaniel Spencer competed in Laval as well as his second Bouldering World Cup and ended up in 55th. Here are the men’s top 20:
Full Laval Results on the IFSC Site
And here is the live feed for semifinals:
2014 IFSC Bouldering World Cup #7 – Haiyang, China – Results
I can’t find a feed to take a screen shot from so I’m borrowing this from the IFSC site. Akiyo winning.
I only got to watch the semifinal round of this comp, as the finals were in the middle of the night for us here. If you care about these events you’ll already know that Akiyo Noguchi won her third comp in a row and Jan Hojer won for the men. Nice job to both!
Semis:
The finalists in Haiyang | Udo Neumann
I can’t find the finals video replay, but when I find it I’ll add it here. UPDATE: Here it is! Finals:
Jan Hojer winning for the men. Photo by Udo Neumann.
Click here for some more great photos of the event from Udo
Here are the finals results:
There is also a lead and speed aspect to this comp, and you can find more results et al here: IFSC.org
IFSC Bouldering World Cup #6 – Vail – Some Pictures
The winners!
I went to Vail this weekend and so did not watch the live feed and post about it. The comp was fantastic to watch and congratulations to Akiyo and Dmitrii on their wins.
A picture I took of Akiyo after the comp. She went power mad with her golden axe!
I will write some thoughts and collect some more media soon, but here are some photos from Udo for the time being.
2014 IFSC Bouldering World Cup #5 – Toronto – Wrap-up Post
Akiyo Noguchi winning decisively on Women’s Final 4. Note the Kilter Grips Sandstone Medium 2 slot right of her toe. Nice!
Quali Results & Semifinals Replay
Semi Results & Live Finals Replay
We did a bunch of minute-t0-minute coverage through finals and will probably be updating some of it with more screen shots, or you can just watch the live feed. Here are the links for Finals problem rundowns:
Next week is Vail. Enjoy!
IFSC Bouldering World Cup #5 – Toronto – Final Results
Well that was an exciting final. It all came down to the last problem for the standings, which is always fun to watch. If you can’t watch the replay:
Check out our posts from finals for a rundown of each competitor on each problem:
Toronto Final 1 – updated with more photos 5/2
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Or if you just want to see the Final Results:
Women
Women’s Podium Toronto. Akiyo Noguchi (1) Shauna Coxsey (2) and Alex Puccio (3)
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Men
Men’s podium. Guillaume Glairon-Mondet (1), Jan Hojer (2) and Sean McColl (3)
The French anthem wasn’t working, so the French Canadians in the audience took over and sang it. Nice.
2014 IFSC Bouldering World Cup #5 – Toronto – Final 4
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F4
Akiyo Noguchi matching the finish for the flash and the gold.
Steep roof, looks like you start feet-out and match your hands up, then probably spin around and go up the headwall on huge slopers.
Julija falls off. Falls again. Tried to go feet-first out and it wasn’t working. First try went feet down and that didn’t work either. Goes feet out 3rd go, does two moves and falls. Next go gets a few hand moves out, looks better, then falls. Falls trying to get on forward. Falls trying to get on backward. Done.
Puccio often destroys on roofs, so it’ll be fun to watch her on this. Starts backwards, loses her toe so campuses, spins around, looks good, jumps out, feet cut but she holds on, does a lemay left foot (upsidedown toe hook) to chalk, grabs a sloper, pulls up on it looking like it’s hard, slowly crosses to huge sloper at top of first headwall, rocks up to the undercling volume at the top, flash! Nice.
Jule gets above roof, tries bumping instead of crossing to the last big sloper, nearly sticks but falls. Again gets above roof, falls on the same move trying to cross. Falls in roof. Done.
Miho gets out roof but falls on jump out right. Again. Again. Done.
Shauna falls on jump move. Next go falls trying to get hands different as she spins around. Next go does better, gets the jump, up to the first sloper over the roof (bonus), with a figure 4. Pulls across, crosses to top sloper, looking very strong now. Mantles easily and matches for the send.
Akiyo looks great, moving slow and in control and seems to be unshakeable and she presses up to the finish hold. Flash. Win.
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M4
James Kassay all widdershins.
Holds with a left heel or toe around a bulgy arete, cross left hand up, move right out holds on volumes across a roof.
Mondet looks strong, pulling over to holds on volumes in a roof, gets to top easily. Flash.
James falls on the start. Next uses left heel high above his hand, matches instead of crossing, then moves out right. Falls. Goes again, falls on the campus move to the last volume before the finish. Falls again on start, he’s done. Looks like he may have gotten very tired on the last problem.
Rustam statics his way thorough the bottom and pretty much hikes up through the volumes, heel hooks instead of campusing to last volume, finishes for the flash.
Jongwon starts out trying to go right, changes his mind and tries left hand, then falls. Goes left hand next go and then gets down onto volume with heel like Rustam did, then drops heel and tries to campus like James, misses, off. Goes again, tries to pinch volume instead, off. Done.
Sean flashes. It looks casual. He does the huge campus move and gets over the top of the hold James and Jongwon didn’t hit. Knows he’s got it and the crowd goes crazy. Awesome.
Jan goes with left heel and cross, looks like his shoe pops off and he falls. The fall cost him the win, Mondet now is ahead via attempts. Jan hikes the problem 2nd go for silver.
2014 IFSC Bouldering World Cup #5 – Toronto – Final 3
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F3
Alex at the bottom of W3.
Shauna at the top of W3.
Dual-tex sidepulls and stand up on left foot volume with left hand around arete, cross or bump to holds on a little volume without swinging off, move up to high volume over lip, match or just pull through to final hold.
Julija looks good, balances around the corner and jumps for a hold and misses. Gets up and sends. Nice!
Alex does what Julija did first go, works around corner and tries to jump but misses. Again with a hop with her left hand. Again. Finally sticks it! Up to high volume, matches, looks to be slipping but makes it! Top.
Jule tries the cross first go, falls off. Goes left again, nearly sticks but falls off. The problem has heel-hook inhibitors so you can’t heel or step on the start holds. She goes left again, falls. Finally sticks it. Finishes.
Miho goes left and nearly sticks. Sticks next go. Next move is huge for her but no problem, she basically one-arms it. Amazing.
Shauna goes right instead of crossing but swings off. Sends next go.
Akiyo crosses and bumps out left hand to catch herself. Gets high volume and everyone has finished from here, Akiyo does too. 2nd go send.
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M3
Rustam stemming out under the roof.
James Kassay working for it. He tried really, really hard, but didn’t quite manage to match the finish.
Jongwon using the heel to match.
GG sending Men’s Final 3 by successfully sitting on the blob.
Press out under a roof on slopers, get huge dragonball above the lip, sit on it to match the undercling finish.
Guillaume works his way around the feet by pressing against the hold under the roof, gets out and onto the large dragonball, tries to sit on it to get both hands out, looks really tangled up, got it with one hand, looks very uncomfortable but manages to match it for the flash. As soon as he’s scored he shifts position to sit properly and takes both hands off. Ha. Flash. Nice.
James gets out of the roof and to the big dragon ball and tries to sit but from the opposite direction that GG did. Like GG he gets one hand to finish but can’t reach with both. He’s got a major calf bar. He unwinds and drops off, then tries to spin the other way and get his other leg up. Can’t goes back to the first way. Back and forth. Finally drops off.
Rustam shuffles under the roof, throws to dragonball, misses and falls off. Rustam hits the dragon ball but it looks really hard. Gets on it, throws heel up, rocks up off heel and tiny right hand crimp, falls but catches himself, tries to rest with a toehook on the ball. Tries the heel again, falls.
Jongwon nearly falls under the roof but catches himself with an impressive display of tension. Then he falls. Goes again, falls going to dragonball. Gets back on, gets the dragonball, rocks up on the heel like Rustam was trying but makes it work, perches on it and matches the finish. Awesome!!!
Sean presses out nicely, looks uncomfortable under the roof, goes out toe first to dragonball, then gets up on it. Tries to sit up on it the same way James did. Drops down, flips around, goes the other way, is trying to figure out how to get up on it and then looks up, sees the finish hold just above him, gets his balance and presses in to match it. FLASH!!!
Jan gets out to the dragonball easily, grabs the crimp, realizes he can’t get up, is just manhandling it, tries to straight mantle it, tries again, can’t get up on it, keeps catching himself, probably pumped now, tries left heel/calf rock, gets knee up on it, coming in from right like James tried, not fitting, falls off. Goes again, tries mantle, no, then has a slightly better leg wrap, no, falls again. 3rd go tries to mantle again, still not working. He just can’t quite get over it. Falls again. No send.
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