Semifinal Lead Male Youth A
The Under 18 Youth A category climbed the righthand wall. The same one used by their female counterparts. Two parallel, yet different routes. But they have one thing in common: reaching the top is by no means a “walk in the path”. The biggest hurdle is, as usual, the huge upside down wave that opens the gates to the end of the line of holds: the top. Korea’s Minyoung Lee and Jakub Konecny from ther Czech Republic made a good, early start and both fell up high, at the “entrance”to that upper real. France’s Arsène Duval fell two holds lower to beat Britain’sWilliam Bose by a hold. All others were plucked off lower still, including Italy’s Janluca Kostner. The climber who reaches the same hold as Lee and Konecny is Italy’s Stefano Carnati and, in doing so, he takes provisional first with the best 10 still to come. Vadlislav Shevchenko makes sure this situation doesn’t last long: the Russian fights his way through the roof, grabs its last hold, then takes a tumble. Provisional first, three holds higher that Carnati, Lee and Konecnyche, that immediately “resist” the onslaught from Israel’s Yuval Shemla who fell 3 moves away. Swiss Sascha Lehmann took things a significant stage further by climbing higher than Shevchenko and, above all, finding the way to open those gates to the top.
In the meantime James Pope got muddled far lower, in the roof, like America’s Rudolph Ruana, while Japan’s Taito Nakagami fought like a tiger to his last breath to beat Shevchenko. His teammate then succeeded in going one hold higher to finish provisional 2nd behind Lehmann. Three athletes remained: Belgium’s Nicolas Collin, France’s Hugo Parmentier and, last but by no means least, America’s Kai Lightner. It’s on his shoulders, on his undisputed power and class, that everyone’s hopes of someone reaching the top lay. The provisional first 5 exalted as they had already qualified for the final: Lehmann, Ogata, Nakagami, Shevchenko and Carnati. Lee, Konecny and Shemla for their part had to hope that they wouldn’t be bettered. Collin kept their hopes alive by falling a hold from Shemla… But Parmetier then set the record straight and started to make his way well towards the highest point of all – those holds reached by Lehmann. The Frenchman battled unrelentingly but then, just one hold from taking the lead, he fell to finish provisional 2nd. Meaning that Shemla was out of the finals. The last athlete out, America’s Kai Lightner, had impressed all in the qualifications. He was the final hope to see someone clip the top anchor. Lightner climbed smoothly to the highpoint reached by Nakagami and Shevchenko, but then, all of a sudden, became unravelled and made a desperate dyno for the next hold to beat the other two by the smallest of margins. So provisional first went to superbly strong Swissman Sascha Lehmann, ahed of: Hugo Parmentier (Fra), Yoshiyuki Ogata (Jnp), Kai Lightner (Usa), Taito Nakagami (Jpn), Vladislav Shevchenko (Rus), Stefano Carnati (Ita) and Minyoung Lee (Kor).
Semifinal Lead Female Youth A
In the beginning the Under 18 girls seem unable to solve the riddle. At the halfway stage no one had managed to reach the roof that bars the way to the upper section of the route. Japan’s Misato Nishikori and Yukari Nakamura had fallen off the same hold and led the provisional ranking, a fair few holds higher than America’s Melina Costanza. All the others had fallen far lower. These included, unfortunately for Italy, Eva Scroccaro. Michelle Hulliger from Switzerland provided a shock to the system by climbing a bit higher than the two Japanese. But still a long way from finding… the solution. America’s Grace McKeehan provided some clues by climbing two holds above Hulliger’s highpoint in her attempt to exit that “damn” overhanging roof. Her teammate Claire Buhrfeind even manages to climb three holds higher before giving up, completely spent. Italy’s Ilaria Scolaris climbed superbly, completely concentrated in an attempt to reach Buhrfeind’s highpoint, but despite putting in a noteworthy performance her energies ran out and she fell slightly lower. Asja Gollo put in a beautiful and determined climb only to fall off the same hold as her teammate. Three athletes remained… and provisional second and third were already Italian! Aika Tajima from Japan didn’t wait to be asked twice and, without further ado, slowly but surely travelled in the overtaking lane and fell there where no one had fallen before: 5 holds higher than Buhrfeind. The Japanese’s climb had been outstanding, so much so that America’s Margo Hayes failed to match it and had to make do with one hold higher than her teammate. The time had now come for the last climb. Janja Garnbret entered the arena. The Slovenian champion warmed up on the lower section. The strolled through the roof, taking time to clip and “recover” slightly. Then she set off and – one lock-off after the next – made her way to the top. Relaxed, splendid, worthy of a huge applause! Once again it is she who leads the field, just like she did when she won the Bouldering World Championship.
Garnbret, naturally, is the big favorite for the Lead title. In Saturday’s Final she will have to watch out though for all the rest. Starting with 2nd placed Aika Tajima (Jpn), followed by the Americans Margo Hayes and Claire Buhrfeind, the Italians Asja Gollo and Ilaria Scolaris, the third American Grace McKeehan and Switzerland’s Michelle Hulliger.
And to relive the excitement of the competition check out the videos, already online!
by Vinicio Stefanello / Planetmountain.com
IFSC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2015
– Gallery 2015
– Video 2015
– Results 2015
