Indoor Weekly: Sean McColl Celebrates, Boulder Chongqing Review
Sean McColl is happy to have won silver at the Chongqing World Cup this past weekend.
You can see the final results and where Canadians placed here, Alannah Yip finished in 11th after Semis.
After his second-place finish, McColl said, “So happy with my silver medal here in Chongqing. It’s nice to have my confidence back after 2017 being the worst bouldering season of my career.
“2018 now marks the 10th World Cup season where I’ve gotten a Bouldering World Cup medal. Big thanks to my sponsors, friends, family and team manager.”
McColl is currently ranked seventh at the 2018 World Cup and 15th overall in the world.
The next World Cup is in Tai’an, China, on May 12 and 13.
IFSC Comp Report
The Bouldering climbing seasons continued this weekend in Chongqing, the first stop on the 2018 China Tour. In the end, Indonesia, Japan and Russia all brought home three IFSC World Cup medals.
Under the early evening sun above the specially-designed Huayang Climbing Park in Chongqing, elite Bouldering athletes took to the stage for the final on Sunday. Akiyo Noguchi and Miho Nonaka of Japan started strong in the women’s final, hanging upside down to exit the roof beginning W1 and keeping it together for the sole tops.
Stasa Gejo (SRB) was first to solve the W2 slab, executing precise footwork and a skip to score the zone point and leaping to the top hold with 20 seconds remaining. Noguchi followed suit on W2 and took a substantial lead by completing an exhausting 2-minute flash of an uncomfortable W3.
When Nonaka topped in one attempt too many, Noguchi secured her first IFSC World Cup win since her last victory in Chongqing in 2015. Already first and second, Noguchi and Nonaka closed the round with pure power on W4 and two crowd-pleasing tops, improving their positioning in the season Bouldering rankings after three events. Gejo, European Bouldering champion and The World Games winner last year, reached her first IFSC World Cup podium by scoring three zone points.
After every male finalist flashed M1 and could not complete the opening dyno of M3 to score the zone point, the medal decisions came down to the second and fourth problems. Kokoro Fujii finished wrestling the volumes of M2 with 5 seconds remaining, and Sean McColl (CAN) and Jakob Schubert (AUT) flashed the problem.
On the very physical last problem, Fujii secured first place in Chongqing and the third medal for Japan with a double-dyno finish. McColl placed second for his first medal of the 2018 season with a strong attempt on M4 to score the zone point. Aleksei Rubtsov (RUS) bumped Schubert off the podium with an exciting last move, winning bronze on zone points.
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