Indoor Weekly: Tai’an World Cup Quali Highlights

The fourth competition of the 2018 Bouldering IFSC World Cup series and second stop on the China tour took place in Tai’an.

You can check the results here: male and female. Watch highlights from Qualifiers below.

IFSC Post-Finals Report

Every male finalist topped the dynamic first and third problems and couldn’t overcome the volumes on the second, leaving the final problem to decide the podium.

The tiny crimps beginning M4 and two slippery spherical volumes concluding it provided a challenging and exciting finish.

Only Alex Khazanov solved the sequence to seal the victory in his first final and secure Israel’s first IFSC World Cup medal.

Jernej Kruder (SLO) flashed two problems to maintain the lead in the Bouldering season rankings, and Gregor Vezonik brings home a second medal for Slovenia by surpassing Rei Sugimoto (JPN) on countback to semi-finals.

Four-time Bouldering season champion Akiyo Noguchi of Japan dominated in Chongqing last weekend and continued the excellent climbing in Tai’an.

She flashed every problem in qualifications, never missed a top and required just five attempts to complete the final four problems and rise to first place in the season rankings.

Her teammate and runner-up Miho Nonaka also topped every problem in finals: the W1 and W3 slabs, a powerful second problem and the difficult W4 which required both strength and technique to complete.

Fanny Gibert (FRA) rounded out the podium with two tops, her first of 2018. Kyra Condie (USA) and Johanna Färber (AUT) competed in their first IFSC World Cup finals.

Double victory for France, 1st win for Israel and @noguchi_akiyo repeats in Tai'an. Congrats to all the athletes who made the podium at the 4th Bouldering and 3rd Speed #IFSCwc of 2018! Summary, results and Bouldering/Speed highlights now online at the link in our bio ? @necforrest

A post shared by IFSC (@ifsclimbing) on May 13, 2018 at 8:45am PDT