European Boulder Championships: complete report

Over 150 athletes took part in the 2015 edition of the European Boulder Championships that took place in Innsbruck between 14 and 16 May. As the first senior IFSC competition for the year, the 3-day event may have provided us with a taste of things to come in the forthcoming Boulder World Cup season…

The qualification round witnessed the early departure of strong Slovenian Jernej Kruder (vice-World Champion last year) who failed to make it through to the semi-finals and it was quite surprising to see Jan Hojer from Germany qualify only 9th in his group. As to unexpectedly results, this time good: Italy’s Michael Piccolruaz (a finalist in the 2013 edition) tied first with French giant Guillaume Glairon-Mondet in group A, ahead of other powerhouses such as Dmitry Sharafutdinov and Jorg Verhoeven. It’s worth remembering that the reigning European Bouldering Champion, Kilian Fischhuber, wasn’t there to defend his title as he’d resigned from competitions at the end of last season.

Nothing too surprising or alarming to report from the women's qualifiers, apart from the fact that Shauna Coxsey of Great Britain had injured herself recently and could not participate. She did double up as a fantastic co-commentator though and her loss was the live stream audience’s gain.

The men's semi-final was marked by extremely difficult boulder problems. The first one, in fact, was topped only by Jakob Schubert (who therefore qualified in provisional first place for the finals) while problem #3 remained unconquered. More big names such as Gelmanov, Sharafudtinov and Glairon-Mondet failed to make it through to the last round and they were replaced by new faces such as Martin Stráník (Czech Republic) and Stefan Scarperi (Italy), by former world champion Alexey Rubtsov and by Adam Ondra, Hojer and Schubert. The only illustrious victim of the women’s semi-finals was Frenchwoman Mélissa Le Nevé whilst a mix of Austrian and German athletes sensationally took the first five out of seven places in the final, leaving one for Fanny Gibert (France) and one for Mina Markovic (Slovenia) who tied for provisional sixth.

The men’s final had rather peculiar dynamics. The first boulder, which wedged athletes under a big undercling and then required a lunge to a sloper, was topped by Ondra only. Unluckily for him, though, his flash attempt was halted by a referee he had touched a nearby problem during the dyno, meaning that he sent it second go.

The second boulder looked less daunting, with a nice back-to-the-wall start followed by a wild dyno to a hold that was out of sight. Jan Hojer produced an extremely impressive flash whilst Jakob Schubert managed to send it in the dying seconds of his round. At this point, the German had taken the provisional lead, ahead of Adam Ondra and the Austrian who trailed third.

The third problem was characterised by vertical symmetry as the holds were identical on both two sides. This resulted in many different types of beta, although the only athlete who actually managed to stick the extremely slick and slopy holds was Stefan Scarperi of Italy, whose 5th go top put him ahead of Jakob Schubert.

The last boulder frustrated many climbers, too. But when Jan Hojer climbed it on his second attempt, it was game over. With two tops in three attempts and a better score than Ondra when it came to bonuses, he had secured himself the European championship. The young man from Brno then came in second after climbing the last boulder in four attempts and, since no one else managed to reach its top, Stefan Scarperi held on to bronze. Just one attempts separated the Italian from Jakob Schubert who had looked impressively strong throughout the qualifications and semi-final.

The female final was more linear but by no means less impressive. In fact, whereas the best male athletes managed just two tops, Juliane Wurm produced two amazing flashes on the first two technical boulders. Anna Stöhr managed to send these two problems but needed more attempts, while the the other five ladies remained empty-handed. The third problem was climbed by more athletes despite a powerful, near iron cross move. The final problem tackled a slab with a really long move off terrible footholds. At this point Jule and Anna led the field by two tops and had therefore guaranteed the first two places. And when Anna Stöhr fell off the boulder one last time, everybody knew that the gold had gone to reigning World Champion Juliane Wurm.

Although there were many participants and the competitive spirit was ablaze, it's hard to try and predict how things will go in the Boulder World Cup season, due to start in Toronto in two weeks time. Jule Wurm and Anna Stöhr looked head and shoulders above the rest (3 tops in the final whereas the others managed 1 at the most), but since this was a European event calibre competitors were excluded such as Akiyo Noguchi (winner of the 2014 World Cup season) and Alex Puccio, as well as the aforementioned injured Shauna Coxsey.

As to the male athletes, the likes of Glairon-Mondet (third in the 2014 World Cup) and the Russian stars Gelmanov and Sharafutdinov (each with way too many titles to mention) will surely wish to redeem themselves after this false start. Good work by Ondra, current World Champion and intent on completing a full comp season this year, by Schubert who, on the contrary, will spend more time on rock, and of course by the winner Jan Hojer.

We hope that problem setting will improve too, since the boulders proved too difficult in many cases. For instance, the men's semi-final was basically a two-boulder competition since the third bloc remained unclimbed and the first one was only topped once. Things improved slightly in the final, although all said and done there were only six tops on three boulders, not a lot for a heat comprised of 6 athletes × 4 problems…

In any case, we are looking forward to the 2015 competition season and hope it'll be intense and satisfying for both the athletes and spectators alike.

by Franz Schiassi

Final Results - Male
1 Jan Hojer GER 2 tops in 3 attempts, 4 bonuses in 5 attempts
2 Adam Ondra CZE 2t6 3b10
3 Stefan Scarperi ITA 1t5 2b6
4 Jakob Schubert AUT 1t6 3b7
5 Martin Stranik CZE 0t 4b11
6 Alexey Rubtsov RUS 0t 4b16

Final results - Female
1 Juliane Wurm GER 3 tops in 4 attempts, 4 bonuses in 4 attempts
2 Anna Stöhr AUT 3t7 4b8
3 Katharina Saurwein AUT 1t1 3b3
4 Monika Retschy GER 1t1 3b7
5 Jessica Pilz AUT 1t2 2b3
6 Mina Markovic SLO 1t7 2b8
7 Fanny Gibert FRA 0t 2b6

FULL RESULTS
MALE
1 Jan Hojer GER
2 Adam Ondra CZE
3 Stefan Scarperi ITA
4 Jakob Schubert AUT
5 Martin Stranik CZE
6 Alexey Rubtsov RUS
7 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
8 Alban Levier FRA
9 Jorg Verhoeven NED
10 Rustam Gelmanov RUS
11 Dmitrii Sharafutdinov RUS
12 MICKAEL Mawem FRA
13 Stephane Hanssens BEL
14 Rolands Rugens LAT
15 Domen Skofic SLO
16 Mathias Conrad GER
17 Guillaume Glairon Mondet FRA
18 David Barrans GBR
19 Gregor Vezonik SLO
20 Andrzej Mecherzynski- Wiktor POL
21 Anthony Gullsten FIN
21 Jernej Kruder SLO
23 Jeremy Bonder FRA
23 Alfons Dornauer AUT
23 Ben West GBR
26 Jakub Glowka POL
27 Vadim Timonov RUS
27 Simon Unger GER
29 Marco Gozzi ITA
29 Jakub Jodlowski POL
31 Nicky De Leeuw NED
31 Lukas Ennemoser AUT
33 Benjamin Blaser SUI
33 Kenneth Elvegård NOR
35 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA
35 Eric Lopez Mateos ESP
35 Tim Reuser NED
35 Arman Ter-Minasyan RUS
39 Manuel Cornu FRA
40 David Firnenburg GER
41 Jure Becan SLO
41 Gabriele Moroni ITA
43 Bjørn Arnel Iisager DEN
43 Stepan Stranik CZE
45 Alex Khazanov ISR
45 Vilimantas Petrasiunas LTU
47 Georg Parma AUT
47 Nathan Phillips GBR
47 Elias Weiler AUT
50 Jonatan Flor Vazquez ESP
51 Timo Tak NED
51 Loïc Timmermans BEL
53 Kevin Heiniger SUI
53 Baptiste Ometz SUI
55 Matthew Cousins GBR
55 Roman Kucera CZE
57 Kipras Baltrunas LTU
57 Orrin Coley GBR
59 Alexander Averdunk GER
59 Ilari Juho Kelloniemi FIN
61 Franz Krakenberger SUI
61 Geir Söderin SWE
63 Lukas Geukens BEL
63 Samuel Ometz SUI
65 Nazaret Calvente Santana ESP
65 Bozhidar Lyubenov BUL
65 Frederik Zeilberger Thulstrup DEN
68 Javier Cano Blazquez ESP
69 Borna Cujic CRO
69 Luka Kivela CRO
69 Emiliyan Kolevski BUL
69 Nikola Petrov BUL
73 Martin Penkov BUL
74 Jakub Jedlicka CZE
75 Tamás Farkas HUN
75 Moritz Waldleben SUI
77 Štefan Bednar SVK
77 Krešimir Morić CRO
77 Ivan Pevec CRO
80 Maarten Nieuwenhuijs. NED
81 Gurami Dabrundashvi. GEO
81 Giorgi Gabuldani GEO
81 Ahmet Guner TUR
81 Mario Mincevski MKD
81 Arda Kadir Uruluer TUR
86 Danila Yamchuk LAT

FEMALE
1 Juliane Wurm GER
2 Anna Stöhr AUT
3 Katharina Saurwein AUT
4 Monika Retschy GER
5 Jessica Pilz AUT
6 Mina Markovic SLO
7 Fanny Gibert FRA
8 Charlotte Durif FRA
9 Julija Kruder SLO
10 Melissa Le Neve FRA
11 Anna Gallyamova RUS
12 Katharina Posch AUT
13 Hannah Midtboe NOR
14 Stasa Gejo SRB
15 Berit Schwaiger AUT
16 Dinara Fakhritdinova RUS
17 Petra Klingler SUI
18 Mélanie Sandoz FRA
19 Yulia Abramchuk RUS
20 Leah Crane GBR
21 Chloé Caulier BEL
21 Jenny Lavarda ITA
23 Katja Kadic SLO
23 Tatiana Shemulinkina RUS
25 Ekaterina Andreeva RUS
25 Anna Vollenwyder AUT
27 Karina Bilkova CZE
27 Petra Ruzickova CZE
29 Bettina Aschauer GER
29 Anna Laitinen FIN
31 Alma Bestvater GER
31 Katrine Vandet Salling DEN
33 Andrea Ebner ITA
33 Jara Späte SUI
35 Karoline Sinnhuber AUT
35 Vera Zijlstra NED
37 Annalisa De Marco ITA
37 Rebekka Stotz SUI
39 Katarzyna Ekwinska POL
39 Nelly Kudrova CZE
41 Paulina Kalandyk POL
41 Valeri Kremer ISR
43 Andrea Kümin SUI
43 Stella Plantin SWE
45 Natalie Bärtschi SUI
45 Michelle Kim Theisen DEN
45 Janka Meyer GER
48 Daniela Kotrbova CZE
49 Sylwia Buczek POL
49 Elsa Ponzo FRA
49 Franziska Sterrer AUT
52 Giulia Alton ITA
53 Isabell Adolph GER
53 Petya Garbova BUL
53 Asja Gollo ITA
56 Santa Grigorjeva LAT
57 Nóra Király HUN
57 Meshveliani Salome GEO
57 Agniete Seibokaite LTU
57 Katerina Zachrdlova CZE
61 Karina Miroslaw POL
61 Itziar Zabala Zurinaga ESP
63 Tina Johnsen Hafsaas NOR
63 Lara Özak TUR
65 Maja Petrovska MKD
65 Anastasija Teriochina LTU
67 Gulsah Selçuk TUR