Shauna Coxsey moves further ahead after winning her third gold of the season in the fifth round of the IFSC Boulder World Cup 2017, bringing her grand total across all seasons up to a perfect 10. Hosted in Vail, USA, the GB Climbing Team battled high altitude and soaring temperatures to put in their best performance of the season with all our athletes qualifying for semi-finals.
The fifth round of the IFSC Bouldering World Cup headed to Vail, Colorado in the USA where BMC ambassador Shauna Coxsey pulled ahead of the pack by topping the podium. This recent win takes Shauna’s gold medal total up to three out of five rounds, and increases her lead over Janja Garnbret of Slovenia – who narrowly missed the final in seventh place – up to 65 points, and bronze medallist Miho Nonaka of Japan to 138 points.
With only two rounds left to go, and not forgetting that each competitor’s worst result is discounted, the latest result bodes well for Shauna to retain her crown as reigning Boulder World Cup Champion.
Superb performances were seen from the whole GB Climbing Team with Tyler Landman, Michaela Tracy and Leah Crane also making semi-finals – the first for Leah!
“What sets Vail apart from the other rounds is its altitude,” says Leah Crane. “Known as a popular ski resort in the winter, and situated at an altitude of 2,445m, the effects on sea-level dwellers can differ from headaches, light nose bleeds, to breathlessness when jogging to cross the road. It’s easy to see which competitors struggle with the altitude of this round.”
Gold for Shauna and first semi-final for Leah in Vail, Colorado! Photo: Leah Crane
Jongwon Chon of Korea fought off Aleksei Rubtsov and four members of Team Japan to take the gold medal in the men’s. And overall, another dominating display of strength came from the Japanese Team, who once again crowded the podiums to take four out of the six medals on offer.
Event report: Finals
In the women’s, Alex Puccio of USA immediately had her home crowd roaring with a flash of W1, a performance that no other competitor could match. But the slabby W2 proved too tricky for Alex, and her lead slipped. A pleasing dyno on W3 saw four athletes with two tops apiece, and it came down to W4 to decide podium places. Akiyo Noguchi and Miho Nonaka of Japan successfully wrestled their way up, putting the pressure on Shauna needing top in three attempts or less.
Leah commented: “Shauna managed to stay ahead of Akiyo by few attempts all the way and held it together to top the last bloc and take her 10th gold medal in the IFSC Boulder World Cup Series.”
Shauna claimed her third gold of the season brining her career total up to 10, Akiyo took silver, and Miho won the bronze medal.
Over in the men’s final, all competitors topped M1, including Yoshiyuki Ogata of Japan who matched the last hold mere seconds before time expired. A draining overhang for M2 saw only two tops from Kokoro Fuji of Japan and Jongwon Chon of Korea. Chon then took the lead after negotiating a technical slab on M3, which Aleksei Rubtsov of Russia and Meichi Narasaki of Japan also topped to vie for the gold medal, and once again everything came down to the final, demanding bloc. Slippery features on another overhang on M4 troubled all but Chon, Narasaki and Ogata, with Chon’s clean sweep of all the blocs winning him the gold medal. Silver and bronze were claimed by Narasaki and Ogata, respectively.
Leah says: “Shauna moves well ahead on the overall score board as Janja failed to make the final. Defending the overall World Cup Champion title now looks more likely, but it's not over ‘til it's over: the penultimate round is in Mumbai, India, in two weeks!”
WATCH: The Finals Highlights of IFSC BWC Vail 2017
VIDEO
Women's results:
Shauna Coxsey (GBR)
Akiyo Noguchi (JPN)
Miho Nonaka (JPN)
Alex Puccio (USA)
Katja Kadic (SLO)
Petra Klingler (SUI)
Men's results:
Jongwon Chon (KOR)
Meichi Narasaki (JPN)
Yoshiyuki Ogata (JPN)
Aleksei Rubtsov (RUS)
Kokoro Fujii (JPN)
Keita Watabe (JPN)
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