Speed Climbing World Cup in China

The second stop of the IFSC speed world cup took place in Chongqing, China on the weekend.

Thousands of spectators filled Waitan Square in sweltering temperatures to watch the competition. Qixin Zhong took the gold in front of his home crowd and kept his lead in the overall ranking. In second was Ukrainian climber Danyil Boldyrev and in third was Libor Hroza with a time of 5.61, only 0.01 seconds off the world record.

In the women’s category, Iuliia Kaplina established a new world record during Qualifications at 7.56. She broke her previous world record, which she had set in Saanich (CAN), by as much as 0.18 seconds, confirming her status as fastest female climber in the world. In finals, however, she did not climb as fast as her competitors and finished in third. Mariia Krasavina won gold and Polish climber Edita Ropek took silver.

Canadian climber Robert Stewart-Patterson posted a 6.69 in his qualifier and came 11th.

Sean McColl not only won the Bouldering World Cup, but also posted a time of 8.41 seconds and came 24th. Full results here.

In the speed world cup overall ranking Stewart-Patterson is now 10th and McColl is 11th.

Watch the finals: