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Sean McColl Wins Silver at Valence World Cup

Watch the video of the Valence World Cup here

Sean McColl continues his podium run on the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Cup circuit. This weekend’s second place finish puts Sean in 4th overall with one event remaining.

From McColl:

I got some rest in between semis and finals and felt better while walking back to the competition. In the finals isolation, we spent most of the time just talking, laughing and having a good time; that was what I needed. We previewed and when I climbed I had a good time. I didn’t feel sick or weak, I felt tired, but I just tried not to think about it.

I fell in the last traverse of the route after losing my feet a couple moves before. The crowd of a few thousand were great and as I lowered all I could do was wave and smile. Thanks for that support Valence!

There was such a big change from the semis to finals that I didn’t care what place I finished, just that the process and the climb was fun and i I didn’t feel like throwing up at the end.

I sat on the leader chair for under five minutes as Adam Ondra climbed after me and destroyed my high point. I figured with my performance, I might be 4th or 5th. To my surprise, I watched from the audience as one-by-one the last 4 climbers fell below my position. Their falls ranged from miss-reading the route, slipping or not executing fast enough, but in the end I was in 2nd place with no more climbers to come.

A long weekend for me is now over and I feel like I’m already pretty recovered from my bad night. It sucks when these things happen, but there’s nothing we can do about it so we have to make do. I tried my best to ignore it, I drank as much as possible and tried to get sugar back in me. During the finals, I was lucky enough to feel as normal as I could and I climbed very well.

Next and last world cup of the year is in Kranj, Slovenia in two weeks.

The video replay (all 4 hours) of the Men’s and Women’s Finals is on Youtube, jump to 35:45 to see the start of Sean’s climb.

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