European Championship, Chabot and Sedlmayer reign victorious
French Alexandre Chabot and German Katrin Sedlmayer crowned European Champions in Munich Sunday afternoon
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| A fantastic performance in the Semi-final is what secured Alexandre Chabot the European Championship 2000, ahead of his closest rival Cristian Brenna who reached exactly the same height as the young Frenchman in the men's Final. Eugueni Ovtchinnikov, last week's World Cup winner in Courmayeur, placed third, while fourth and fifth place went to Davide Caude and Sylvain Millet respectively. The women's event was marked by a surprise victory by Katrin Sedlmayer. Fourth in Courmayeur last weekend, the twenty-one-year old German evidently took advantage of competing in front of an enthusiastic home crowd to beat Stéphanie Bodet, close second, and Marietta Uhden, third. Elena Choumilova placed an excellent fourth, ahead of the ex-European Champion Muriel Sarkany, fifth. Liv Sansoz did not compete. Interviews PlanetMountain.com asked Cristian Brenna and Leonardo Di Marino, Technical Director of the Italian Competition Climbing Team, for a brief comment about the European Championship. His thoughts concern the Italian team in particular and the competition in general. Cristian Brenna: What are your thoughts about your second place in Munich? "After having dynoed and not held the last hold I got really pissed off because I knew I wouldn't win the competition - I even thought I would place third because the route didn't seem particularly difficult. When Euvgeny fell four moves from the top the thought crossed my mind that I might win, but Alexandre matched my height and so he beat me on the basis of his Semi-final result. Looking back, my second place is without a doubt a great performance, especially considering the results I've achieved so far this year. But nevertheless I regret having wasted yet another chance - another chance because since 1996 I've only failed to qualify for four Finals. I'll try to work on my concentration in the future since this seems to let me down during the decisive moments of a competition." A look at the results shows that 18 athletes fell in a space of two meters - what was that section like? "The start of the Semi-final was really intense and the problem with the section where most people fell is that there weren't any footholds. This meant that there were many joint-equals and the difference between one athlete and the next was whether the touched or held the holds. It definitely wasn't a nice route, the intensity was nothing like the Quarter Final or the Final where, even though the route setters had less space, they managed to create relatively sustained routes." Leonardo Di Marino, Technical Director of the Italian Competition Climbing Team: The Italian team "This was definitely one of the strongest Italian teams ever at the Championship. There's a great feeling within the team and it brought home some good results, reconfirming, for the third year running, an athlete on the podium. The overall result needs to be considered, since the sixteen-year-old Jenny Lavarda qualified for the Final and placed an important 8th. Luisa Iovane managed to give it her best by exploiting her careful programming (she sacrificed Courmayeur) to be on top form for Munich." The competition "The incertitude of the outcome of the competition, for good or for bad, grew and was kept high due to considerable amount of joint-equals, above all in the Semi-final. On the other hand though, the athletes couldn't climb enough in the Semi-final to show their true form: the route was a mix between a boulder problem and a lottery and not ideal for a difficulty competition. Nevertheless there were no new faces in the Final - all eight athletes have qualified for a World Cup Final this year. But I can't affirm that the results in Munich fully respected the level of those in the competition." |  Alexandre Chabot, European Champion in Munich photo L. Di Marino  Cristian Brenna, second in Munich photo L. Di Marino  Katrin Sedlmayer, the new European Champion photo L. Di Marino  The Awards ceremony as seen on www.alpenverein.de/em/live | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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