Bouldering World Cup 2014: Jan Hojer and Juliane Wurm win at Chongqing in China

Hojer won in China thanks above all to his impressive determination: in the Final the first problem simply didn't want to be climbed, not even the bonus zone reached, but the German continued to battle, giving it one attempt after the next until he finally sent it. His top, on his 14th attempt, spoke volumes about his grit and form, confirmed shortly afterwards by his other three tops; Hojer was the only athlete to climb all four problems. Dmitrii Sharafutdinov, in provisional first place after the Semis, set off well in the Finals and needed a mere 3 attempts for that terrible first problem, but the third problem suddenly proved fatal and he failed to even reach the bonus hold. The Russian finished second therefore with three tops, ahead of Dutchman Jorg Verhoeven (3rd with 2 tops), Australia's James Kassay, France's Guillaume Glairon Mondet and Russia's Vadim Timonov. It's worth nuoting that the Semifinal was by no means easy and calibre athletes such as Rustam Gelmanov and Kilian Fischhuber failed to make significant headway, finishing 15th and 19th respectively, while Stefan Scarperi, the only Italian in the competition, finished 24th.

In the women's event Wurm won the show with 3 problems sent in 6 attempts, just one attempt less that England's Shauna Coxsey who, once again, just missed out on the top podium place.This could be her year, but she will definitely have to watch out for the likes of other talented athletes, such as
Akiyo Noguchi (3 problems in 12 attempts and therefore 3rd in China), America's Alex Puccio and Austria's Anna Stöhr who after having placed provisional first in the Semis somehow lost her rhythm and finished 5th. Sixth place went to France's Marine Thévenet, her best performance to date in the Senior competitiosn.

Chongqing also hosted the first stage of the Speed World Cup, won by the Russians Stanislav Kokorin and Iuliia Kaplina. They beat Danylo Boldyrev from the Ukraine and Mariia Krasavina from Russia into second place, while Libor Hroza from the Czech Republic and Anouk Jaubert from France placed third.


IFSC Climbing World Cup Chongqing 2014 - Boulder
Men
1 Jan Hojer GER 4t26 4b24
2 Dmitrii Sharafutdinov RUS 3t5 3b5
3 Jorg Verhoeven NED 2t9 2b9
4 James Kassay AUS 1t1 1b1
5 Guillaume Glairon Mondet FRA 1t3 2b2
6 Vadim Timonov RUS 0t 0b

Women
1 Juliane Wurm GER 3t6 3b6
2 Shauna Coxsey GBR 3t7 4b10
3 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 3t12 4b13
4 Alex Puccio USA 2t4 3b5
5 Anna Stöhr AUT 2t10 3b11
6 Marine Thévenet FRA 1t2 2b3