IFSC World Cup 2016: Sean McColl and Elan Jonas-McRae Head to Semis
This is the final Lead IFSC World Cup on the tour and the second last for Speed and is taking place in Xiamen, China. The only two Canadians competing are Sean McColl and Elan Jonas-McRae and both climbers advanced to Semis for Lead. The Speed Finals have wrapped-up, results and highlight reel below. Stay tuned for Semis and Finals results.
Speed Finals Results Male/Female
1. Stanislav Kokorin / Klaudia Buczek
2. Iuliia Kaplina / Bassa Mawem
3. Anna Tsyganova / Qixin Zhong
Pre-comp reporte: Janja Garnbret returned to her winning ways at the IFSC Climbing and Paraclimbing World Championships 2016 in Paris after falling short at the recent IFSC Lead World Cups in Arco and Imst. The seventeen-year-old from Slovenia is ranked first in the Lead rankings, but Anak Verhoeven of Belgium – who also Topped at the Finals in Paris – is still in the hunt. After winning big in Arco, look for Verhoeven to impress again in Xiamen. Seasoned IFSC Athletes Mina Markovic of Slovenia and Jain Kim of Korea finished third and fourth in Paris and will continue to battle for another spot on the Overall podium.
For the Men, Adam Ondra of the Czech Republic wowed the AccorHotels Arena crowd with an exciting Top to close the event in Paris, but the world champion is not yet among the Starters for Xiamen. Should he not compete, Paris runner-up Jakob Schubert of Austria will be poised for his first Gold of the 2016 season. Slovenian Domen Skofic, first in the Lead rankings, has thrice donned the hardware this year and could secure the Overall victory in Xiamen.
In Speed, Marcin Dzienski of Poland secured the victory in the Overall rankings this week with a Bronze in Wujiang. It is the first Overall win for the twenty-three-year old and comes only weeks after his victory in Paris. Four athletes will battle in Xiamen for the remaining season-ending medals: Danyil Boldyrev, Stanislav Kokorin, Reza Alipourshenazandifar and Bassa Mawem. Also be sure to watch Chinese Speed legend Qixin Zhong and rising Russian speedster Vladislav Deulin, who finished first and second in Wujiang.
The story of the weekend in Speed, though, will be the battle between season rivals Anouck Jaubert of France and Iuliia Kaplina of Russia. No other Woman has topped the podium this season, and the two competitors have finished first and second the past three events. Since only the top six scores count towards the Overall rankings, Kaplina sits just eleven points behind Jaubert, well within reach of Gold. After coming up short in Paris to Kaplina’s teammate, Anna Tsyganova, Jaubert regained the momentum in Wujiang with her fourth consecutive IFSC Speed World Cup victory, an IFSC record. Teammates Aleksandra Rudzinska and Klaudia Buczek of Poland will vie for the remaining spot on the Overall podium in Xiamen.
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