Bouldering World Cup 2015: Jan Hojer and Megan Mascarenas win in Vail

After Toronto in Canada, the Bouldering World Cup moved to Vail, USA last weekend where 76 men and 52 women competed in the circuit’s second stage. Germany’s Jan Hojer won by the smallest of margins; in the finals the reigning European champion sent 3 problems in 4 attempts, requiring 4 attempts to reach the bonus zone, while America’s Nathaniel Coleman sent the same problems but needed two more attempts for the bonuses. Coleman’s second place in Vail confirms that his silver medal in Toronto a week earlier was no flash in the pan and he beat, again by the smallest of margins, reigning World Champion Adam Ondra. After a poor start on the problem #1 the Czech climber then became the only athlete to send problem #2 and seemed on course to victory, but faltered on the last hurdle that almost everyone else flashed.

In the women’s event Megan Mascarenas won her first ever international competition, much to the home crowd’s delight. The 17-year-old American had qualified last while the best in the Semis, Akiyo Noguchi from Japan, had to make do with silver. Great Britain’s Shauna Coxsey celebrated her return to form by winning bronze, ahead of Miho Nonaka from Japan and Anna Stöhr from Austria who injured her finger on the second problem and was therefore forced to stop her competition prematurely. The lineup was completed by 16-year American Margo Hayes who produced her best performance to date.

Vail will be remembered for the impressive display of American talent, rarely seen in Europe. And also, less positively, for a series of unfortunate injuries that resulted in many hot favorites from being excluded. Alex Puccio suffered a knee injury while warming up in isolation before the qualifying round, while the two French aces Guillaume Glairon Mondet and Alban Levier both got injured during the actual competition, just like Stöhr. Such a high accident rate is unusual and probably simply down to bad luck and not due to the style of the boulder problems, but there can be no doubt that the stresses and strains put on the athletes in these competitions is intense to say the least.

Jan Hojer flashing #4 in the final


Final results men
1 Jan Hojer GER 3t4 4b4
2 Nathaniel Coleman USA 3t4 4b6
3 Adam Ondra CZE 3t12 4b12
4 Dmitrii Sharafutdinov RUS 2t3 4b7
5 Sean Mccoll CAN 2t3 3b4
6 Kokoro Fujii JPN 2t7 4b14
7 Jason Holowach CAN 1t2 4b12
8 Rei Sugimoto JPN
9 Makoto Yamauchi JPN
10 Jakob Schubert AUT
11 Jorg Verhoeven NED
12 Jeremy Bonder FRA
13 Peter Dixon USA
14 Domen Skofic SLO
15 Shawn Raboutou USA
16 Martin Stranik CZE
17 Guillaume Glairon Mondet FRA
18 Jernej Kruder SLO
19 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
20 Alban Levier FRA
21 David Barrans GBR
21 Rustam Gelmanov RUS
21 Rolands Rugens LAT
24 Benjamin Blaser SUI
25 Daniel Fisher AUS
25 James Kassay AUS
27 Manuel Cornu FRA
27 Andre Difelice CAN
27 Andrew Lamb USA
30 Kevin Heiniger SUI
31 Tomoa Narasaki JPN
31 Simon Unger GER
33 Jongwon Chon KOR
33 Keita Watabe JPN
35 Nathan Phillips GBR
35 Stefan Scarperi ITA
37 Mathias Conrad GER
37 Ian Dory USA
39 Alex Khazanov ISR
39 Josh Larson USA
41 Nicky De Leeuw NED
41 Tyler Landman GBR
43 Robert D'anastasio USA
43 Mickael Mawem FRA
45 Nicolas Pacheco ARG
45 Ben West GBR
47 Alfons Dornauer AUT
47 Andrzej Mecherzynski- Wiktor POL
49 Sebastien Lazure CAN
49 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
51 Bjørn Arnel Iisager DEN
51 Kenneth Elvegård NOR
51 Austin Geiman USA
54 Jakub Glowka POL
55 Mauricio Huerta MEX
55 Elias Weiler AUT
57 Mohammad Jafari Mahmoudabadi IRI
57 Michael O'rourke USA
59 Hector Lopez Valdez MEX
59 Ayodele Sopeju CAN
61 Ryan Scurfield USA
61 Jake Tiger CAN
61 Joel Zerr USA
64 Orrin Coley GBR
65 Peter Erard USA
65 Héctor Adrián Martínez Cordero MEX
67 Brendan Mitchell USA
67 Sebastian M Montes ARG
67 William Pair USA
70 Kai Lightner USA
71 Alejandro Martinez Cordero MEX
71 Santiago Schmidt ARG
73 Shaun Hunter CAN
73 Louis Parkinson GBR
75 Nathaniel Spencer USA
76 Ryan Withey USA

Final results women
1 Megan Mascarenas USA 3t4 4b5
2 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 2t4 3b6
3 Shauna Coxsey GBR 2t4 3b7
4 Miho Nonaka JPN 1t1 2b2
5 Anna Stöhr AUT 1t2 2b5
6 Margo Hayes USA 1t4 2b5
7 Petra Klingler SUI
8 Monika Retschy GER
9 Charlotte Durif FRA
10 Julija Kruder SLO
11 Fanny Gibert FRA
12 Angela Payne USA
13 Aya Onoe JPN
14 Katharina Saurwein AUT
15 Karoline Sinnhuber AUT
16 Berit Schwaiger AUT
17 Alex Johnson USA
18 Melissa Le Neve FRA
19 Claire Buhrfeind USA
20 Sol Sa KOR
21 Sierra Blair-Coyle USA
21 Leah Crane GBR
23 Mélanie Sandoz FRA
23 Juliane Wurm GER
25 Kyra Condie USA
25 Stacey Weldon CAN
27 Hannah Midtboe NOR
27 Miwa Oba JPN
29 Grace Mckeehan USA
29 Vera Zijlstra NED
31 Meagan Martin USA
31 Elsa Ponzo FRA
33 Delaney Miller USA
33 Allison Vest CAN
35 Lisa Chulich USA
35 Kayla Lieuw USA
37 Thomasina Pidgeon CAN
37 Anna Vollenwyder AUT
37 Alyssa Weber CAN
40 Emma Horan AUS
41 Rebecca Frangos CAN
41 Francesca Metcalf USA
43 Kaori Hosono JPN
43 Alison Stewart- Patterson CAN
45 Mária Čelková SVK
45 Ashley Edens USA
47 Sofia Heinze Cacho MEX
47 Leanna Lockhart USA
49 Claire Langmore AUS
49 Diane Merrick GBR
51 Erina Miura JPN
52 Sue Brumm USA