Bouldering World Cup 2012, Fischhuber and Stöhr win in Innsbruck

It's hard to think of a better way for the city of Innsbruck to celebrate the fourth stage of Bouldering World Cup 2012 than with the victories of two local athletes, Kilian Fischhuber and Anna Stöhr! Fischhuber proved his perennial class in front of a 3500 strong crowd by sending two problems in the final round of the competition, while his arch rival - Rustam Gelmanov - managed to send just one. This lone top however sufficed for the Russian to win silver and just goes to show how difficult the problems really were in this last round. The remaining finalists know this all too well - Sean McColl from Canada, the other Austrian Jakob Schubert (evidently back on form after his Viennese "blunder", and the two British climbers Edward Feehally and Stewart Watson. It was no-go for all of them, those four finishing holds remained an elusive dream and the athletes were split by the number of attempts needed to reach the bonus zones.

In comparison to the men's event, the women's went right down to the wire and required nerves of steel and tactics in which the number of attempts needed to send the problems played a fundamental role. In fact, both Anna Stöhr and the increasingly strong British climber Shauna Coxsey managed to send all 4 problems, but the Austrian won gold thanks to just one fewer attempt. They were followed by Melissa La Neve, Alex Puccio and Katharina Saurwein, all three with 3 tops, but 4, 6 and 11 attempts respectively. The list of finalists was completed by Korean Jain Kim, an athlete better known for her outstanding climbs with a rope (in 2012 she won the Lead World Cup), and on Saturday night she finished sixth. It's worth noting that the first excluded from the final was Akiyo Noguchi who up until that point had led the provisional ranking and who now finds herself in provisional second. This is certainly disappointing from the Japanese, but she trails Stöhr by a mere 2 points which means that the battle for overall victory is still completely wide open.

As regards to the Italians, thanks to his immense competition experience evergreen Cristain Core placed 9th, while Lucas Preti finished 12th, Stefan Scarperi 39th and Alessio Gosso 56th. Jenny Lavarda placed 24th and Giada Zampa 32nd. Knowing these athletes, we're certain that these results do not do them justice and we wish them - and all the rest - luck for the 5th stage in Vail (USA) in a fortnight's time and for the final, sixth stage in Munich, Germany, in August.


IFSC World Cup 2012 - Innsbruck, Austria
Boulder men
1 Kilian Fischhuber AUT 1983 2t5 4b8
2 Rustam Gelmanov RUS 1987 1t1 3b4
3 Sean McColl CAN 1987 0t 4b4
4 Jakob Schubert AUT 1990 0t 4b15
5 Edward Feehally GBR 1987 0t 2b3
6 Stewart Watson GBR 1984 0t 1b1

Boulder women
1 Anna Stöhr AUT 1988 4t7 4b6
2 Shauna Coxsey GBR 1993 4t8 4b7
3 Melissa Le Neve FRA 1989 3t4 3b4
4 Alex Puccio USA 1989 3t6 3b6
5 Katharina Saurwein AUT 1987 3t11 3b11
6 Jain Kim KOR 1988 2t10 3b12

Provisional results 2012
Boulder men
1 Kilian Fischhuber AUT 576.74
2 Rustam Gelmanov RUS 502.03
3 Dmitrii Sharafutdinov RUS 491.97
4 Guillaume Glairon Mondet FRA 341.06
5 Sean McColl CAN 257.45

Boulder women
1 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 573.9
2 Anna Stöhr AUT 568.67
3 Mina Markovic SLO 397.12
4 Melissa Le Neve FRA 367.93
5 Alex Puccio USA 352.72