Monday June 10, 2008
My first experience watching a climbing World Cup and I was lucky to have it be in the US. This was the first one in nearly 20 years and it was hosted at the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado. The weather was forecast to be poor or sketchy at best for the weekend, but it turned out to be awesome; except for the youth world cup that was hosted on Friday where it was wet, snow and cold. Seattle hasn't been seeing much sun this spring so the change was definitely welcome. In fact, Mike and other Canadians from Vancouver who have been suffering similar weather patterns found themselves more than pink. I wish I had a photo to show how lobster red one shoulder of Mike's was! But, I digress from the World Cup...
Not having experience with World Cups, I wasn't sure
what to expect. I was excited to be there and super
excited to be part of the events by participating in
the Teva Mountain Games Citizen's Comp. I learned
the
host country could send 10 participants for each
category and that meant there would be a good number
of canadians that I have come to know, attending. I
was both jealous and excited for them. Someday I
hope to have the experience of a World Cup. I only
hope to be strong enough to make it off the ground
in one!
After this weekend, wow! The problems were wicked hard. Qualifiers, for example, for the women saw 0 tops on the first 3 problems. Fortunately, the 4th problem saw better with a handful of flashes out of nearly 40 women attempting the problem. For the men, problem 1 saw a good number of tops and flashes. Problem 3 saw only 2 tops: 1 by Paul Robinson of the USA and 1 by Gabriele Morone from Italy and neither of them flashed it.
You can view the story out on my webshots site through the photos Mike and I took. Qualifying in 1st was Alex Johnson from USA, 2nd Anne-Laure Chevrier from France, and 3rd Chloe Graftiaux from Belgium. For the men, Qualifying in 1st was Paul Robinson from USA, 2nd Gabriele Morone from Italy, and 3rd Chris Sharma from USA.
Semi-Finals seemed a bit better with Kilian Fischhuber of Austria flashing all 4 problems.
For the finals, the sun was setting, the chill was creeping in and all athletes were stationed in front of the wall, backs turned, trying to keep warm in between their turns. Women's problem #1 saw a good number of sends, men's problem #1 did not. women's problem #2 saw no sends, but the men's problem saw many. women's problem #3 saw some tops, it wasn't particularly difficult once you stuck the bonus hold....just jump to the finishing jug. but, it must have been a relief to the women who had been spanked on all previous problems. Men's #3 had Kilian and Daniel so close to the top that I couldn't believe neither actually stuck it. Women's #4 had a few sends with some really good attempts. Men's #4 saw one top by Kilian Fischhuber.
End results:
2) Gabriele Morone (ITA) - Katharina Saurwein (AUT)
3) Paul Robinson (USA) - Anna Stohr (AUT)
