China Tour 2019: Climbing in the land of rising sun
With the IFSC season in full swing we head to China for some boulder and speed competitions. We’ll start first in Chongqing April 26-28 and a week later in Wujiang May 3-5.
Speed Starting Blocks
With only one speed competition under their belts, this weekend athletes are anxious to hit the wall again in a display of precision and speed. Following an exciting contest in Moscow we saw a very strong performance from Bassa MAWEM (FRA), the 2018 Men’s Speed Champion, as he duelled with the local favourite Vladislav DEULIN (RUS), who finished 10th following the 2018 season. Aspar JAELOLO (INA) trailed right behind with a 3rd place finish but was eager to do better. After finishing 6th overall in 2018 he is looking to improve his worldwide ranking by making his way up the wall.
YiLing SONG (CHN) is also making a name for herself after finishing in 16th last year she has come back with more determination than before. With 4 impressive times in Moscow, including one of her personal best times of 7.389 seconds in the finals, she easily captured the gold ahead of Anouck JAUBERT (FRA). What also makes her an interesting candidate to keep an eye on her bouldering results, placing 4th in he most recent Hong Kong Asian Cup. We will see what she can do with this strong momentum and home court advantage.
Best of Bouldering
Already with a 1st place finish in Meiringen and a 2nd place finish in Moscow, Adam ONDRA (CZE) is showing his strength and focus as he makes his way to qualify for the Olympics. With an already impressive record in Lead, Adam has upped his game to include some bouldering and especially speed climbing into his repertoire. Finishing in 2nd overall at the IFSC Combined event in Innsbruck last year we have seen some improvements within his bouldering discipline. But after missing the Meiringen Finals, the 2018 Boulder winner, Jernej KRUDER (SLO) demonstrated both his strength and willingness to continue to dominate the Boulder rankings with a Gold medal in Moscow.
His compatriot, Janja GARNBRET, will certainly have her crosshairs on her third consecutive Gold medal this season; however, the task won’t be easy with Shauna COXSEY (GBR) who is back to the top, Fanny GIBERT (FRA) who was very impressive during the past two competitions and other thirsty young climbers such as Lucka RAKOVEC ( SLO), Futaba ITO (JPN), Emily PHILLIPS (GBR) or Oceania MACKENZIE (AUS) who have all challenged even the best climbers pushing each other into the finals.
The schedule, starters, videos, photos and more can be found on the official event page, where you can tune-in to the IFSC homepage on April 26 and 28 for live streaming of the semi-final and final rounds.
