Ice Climbing World Cup 2013, Angelika Rainer and Maxim Tomilov win at Rabenstein

South Tyrol's Angelika Rainer celebrated a fantastic victory yeterday in the small village of Rabenstein in Italys' Val Passiria; after winning the World Championship in South Korea a fortnight ago and placing second at Saas Fee ten days ago, Rainer took the lead in the Sunday's Semi-final, grit her teeth, dealt with the tension and, cheered on by a large crowd, topped out 30 seconds faster than Shin Woon Seon from Korea who finished second, while Russia's Tolokonina finished third.

"Winning my third consecutive World Championship title was great" explained Rainer "but winning at home, at Rabenstein which hosted a World Cup event for the first time, filled me with indescribable joy. Definitely my best victory eve!." Unfortunately her teammate Barbara Zwerger from Bolzano slipped to eighth place due to the ice breaking under the axe placement.

The men's podium was reserved once again to the two Tomilov brothers, Maxim and Alexey. The former, on a winning streak after victory at Saas Fee, sent the final route 8 seconds faster than Korea's Park Heeyong while world champion Alexey Tomilov finished third. Powerful Markus Bendler placed fourth and this was a fitting end to his outstanding competition career: the Austrian had chosen Rabenstein as his last event and he competed with a AVS South Tyrol license since Austria, just like Italy for that matter, currently does not have an ice climbing federation.

The Speed podium was all-Russian in both the female and male events, with Pavel Gulyaev and Maria Krasavina taking gold.

In the overall standing Grivel race department athlete Angelika Rainer is firmly in lead, 60 points ahead of Maria Tolokonina, while the men's event is currently led by Park Heeyong, a mere 7 points ahead of Maxim Tomilov.


Women Lead Results Rabenstein
1. RAINER Angelika, ITA
2. SHIN Woon Seon, KOR
3. TOLOKONINA Maria, RUS
4. GALLYAMOVA Anna, RUS
5. BADALYAN Ludmila, RUS
6. HROZOVA Lucie, CZE
7. FILLIPOVA Maryam, RUS
8. ZWERGER Barbara, ITA

Men Lead Results Rabenstein
1. TOMILOV Maxim, RUS
2. PARK Heeyong, KOR
3. TOMILOV Alexey, RUS
4. BENDLER Markus AUS
5. KUZOVLEV Nikolay, RUS
6. SYPAVIN Valentyn, UKR
7. KRYVOSEYTSEV Yevgen, UKR
8. LYULYUKIN Ivan, RUS