This morning at 10:00am sharp they kicked off the action. And until 19:00 this evening they battled it out, relentlessly. The playing field was the legendary Arco Climbing Stadium onto which, once again, the sun shone brightly and without casting even a shadow. And the stakes were high: the World Youth Climbing Championships. The athletes out in the vertical field were fighting their way through the Boulder qualifications, 244 of them, split into three categories: Youth B (born in 2000, 2001), Youth A (1998,1999), and Juniors (1996, 1997). Only the best 20 of each category qualified for the Semifinal and these qualifiers were by no means easy. The athletes needed to deal with all variables climbing can come up with. Strength, explosive power, delicate balance and intuition were needed to solve the different problems. The top, the final hold, was – by definition – the solution. And, at the same time, the only way to secure a place into the next round. Right from the outset the task seemed unsurmountable. But as the saying goes, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And this second World Championship day witnessed some mighty fine climbing. No one held back. Confirming that, here and now, in the Arco Climbing Stadium, there’s the (great) future of this sport.
Talking about fine climbing. An example of this came in the youngest Youth B (Under 16) category where 15-year-old Filip Schenk from nearby Val Gardena qualified first with 3 tops in 6 attempts (2 of which on his first attempt!). The Italian beat provisional World Ranking #1 Mikel Asier Linacisoro Molina from Spain who qualified first with 3 tops in 14 attempts, the same score as Hayato Nakamura from Japan. So not even Molina and Nakamura managed to send all problems. And neither did the others who, in this order, followed them into the Semis with just 2 problems sent: Love Ymer Alber (Swe), Zach Richardson (Can), Philipp Geisenhoff (Sui) and Italy’s Matteo Manzoni. Who were followed by Yufei Pan (Chn), Christian Range (Ger), Rafal Bak (Pol) and Léo Ferrera. Italy’s hopes flew high with 19th placed David Piccolaruaz.
Only three problems were sent in the Under 18 Youth A category and provisional first was shared by three athletes, namely Japan’s Yoshiyuki Ogata, France’s Hugo Parmentier and Switzerland’s Baptiste Ometz, all with 3 top in 7 attempts. They were followed, with 2 tops, by France’s Mattéo Rousseau and Germany’s Max Prinz (both with 2 tops in 4 attempts), and Israel’s Nimrod Marcus, with 2 problems in 8 attempts. All the rest sent just one boulder and were split by the closest of margins, namely by the number of attempts needed to reach the bonus zone.
Total illumination, i.e. 4 clean tops, only came in the Juniors event. And in abundance, as five athletes topped them all. Japan’s Tomoa Nagasaki led the provisional ranking with 4 tops in 6 attempts, followed by Germany’s Alexander Wurm with a score of 4 tops in 8 attempts. 18-year-old American Nathaniel Coleman placed provisional 3rd, was separated from the others by only 2 attempts. Another German, Moritz Hans (4 tops in 12 attempts) preceded Spain’s Jonatan Flor Vazquez who needed 16 attempts to send the hattrick. Seeing the number of attempts needed, it’s clear that none of these climbers give up easily. They were followed with 3 tops by: Korea’s Jongwon Chon, France’s Nicolas Pelorson, Sweden’s Hannes Puman, Anze Peharc from Slovenia (2nd in the World Ranking), Germany’s Alexander Averdunk, Austria’s Georg Parma, Russia’s Egor Kryachkov and all the others, separated by the number of attempts. Yes, tomorrow’s Semifinal will be an immense battle to win the ticket to paradise, alias the 6 places in the Final. The marathon and battle of the climbers of the future continues…
by Vinicio Stefanello / Planetmountain.com
IFSC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2015
– Gallery 2015
– Video 2015
– Results 2015