Bouldering World Cup, the results from Log-Dragomer

After the start in Milan, the Bouldering World Cup headed to Log-Dragomer in Slovenia last weekend where some new events unfolded which might provide insight for the rest of the season. In the men's event Guillaume Glairon Mondet from France won his first ever World Cup stage, showing that he might well be a force to be reckoned with in 2011: the 24-year-old Frenchman beat the extremely strong Russian Dmitry Sharafutdinov and "the man to beat", Kilian Fischhuber from Austria who won in Milan and who now leads the provisional results.

In the women's event things were more "taken for granted", with the expected battle between impeccable Anna Stöhr from Austria and her most greatest rival Akiyo Noguchi from Japan, seeing that Korean Jain Kim was absent after he win in Milan. Stöhr returned home with gold and maximum points, after silver in Milan. 21-year old Noguchi, who won the World Cup last year, placed second, ahead of Alex Puccio from the USA who, after her win in Vail in 2009, seems intent of retuning to cutting-edge competition form. Jenny Lavarda from Italy place fifth, inserting herself beween two Slovenian specialists, Katja Vidmar (4th) an Natalija Gros (6th).

Guillaume Glairon Mondet won his first senior competition with a final run to be remembered: the Frenchmen sent 3 of the 4 problems in the final first go, beating Sharafutdinov, who had sent 3 problems, by a clear margin since the Russian needed twice as many goes. Furthermore, Mondet's run was an uphill struggle as he had qualified last for the final, decisive round. Kilian Fischhuber sent 2 tops in 3 attempts and won bronze, while Loïc Gaidioz from France finished 4th with 2 tops but 2 attempts more than the Austrian. Alexey Rubtsov send just one problem and dropped to 5th after having "won" the Semi-final, while Fabien Comina, the 3rd Frenchman in the final, finished 6h giving the French team a result it hadn't seen in quite a while.

In the women's event Anna Stöhr, after a "soft" start (3 tops compared to Noguchi's 4 in the Qualifiers), showed what champions are made of. After calling the Semi-Final her own, she won the final by send 2 problems in 3 attempts (one of which flash), compared to Noguchi's 2 tops in 6 attempts. The fact that Alex Puccio's single top netted her bronze proves how difficult the final was, while Katja Vidmar (4th), Jenny Lavarda (5th) and Natalija Gros (6th), failed to top out on a single problem and were separated by their zones.

The provisional ranking is led by Kilian Fischhuber, under pressure from Guillaume Glairon Mondet who trails by a mere 10 points, while Dmitry Sharafutdinov is a further 24 points behind, meaning that plenty of battles and uncertainty lie in store. At present the same cannot be said for the women's event, As Anns Stöhr leads comfortably, 45 points ahead of Akiyo Noguchi and 68 ahead of Alex Puccio. But it's early days yet and there are a staggering seven stages yet... and in the midst of them all, in July, there is the Bouldering World Championship in Arco.

The third stage takes place on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 May in Vienna.


Bouldering World Cup – Overall results after the 2nd stage in Log-Dragomer (SLO)
Men
1) Guillaume Glairon Mondet FRA
2) Dmitry Sharafutdinov RUS
3) Kilian Fischhuber AUT
4) Loïc Gaidioz FRA
5) Alexey Rubtsov RUS
6) Fabien Comina FRA
Women
1) Anna Stöhr AUT
2) Akiyo Noguchi JPN
3) Alex Puccio USA
4) Katja Vidmar SLO
5) Jenny Lavarda ITA
6) Natalija Gros SLO

Bouldering World Cup – Overall results after the 2nd stage in Log-Dragomer (SLO)
Men
1) Kilian Fischhuber AUT p. 165.00
2) Guillaume Glairon Mondet FRA p. 155.00
3) Dmitry Sharafutdinov RUS p. 131.00
Women
1) Anna Stöhr AUT p.180.00
2) Akiyo Noguchi JPN p.135.00
3) Alex Puccio USA p.112.00