Ice Climbing World Cup 2014 - Angelika Rainer and Park HeeYong win in Saas Fee

The four in the running for overall victory left their mark early in the qualifying round, namely Rainer, Shin, Tolokonina and Filippova. In the final all four climbed extremely high, but in the end it was Rainer who clinched victory. "The routes in Saas Fee were really difficult" commented Rainer "and in the end I lowered off completely exhausted, but really happy. I've qualified for five finals here in Saas Fee and this is my fourth victory, yeah, I climb really well here, thanks also to the cheering spectators. At times we climb so close to them we almost touch, incredible!" Second place went to Korea's Shin Woonseon, while third went to Russia's Maria Tolokonina, both on superb form.

The men's final was full of twists and turns: as the Korean climbed all of a sudden the lights went out and HeeYong finished in near darkness and this no doubt affected his performance. After careful consideration the judges declared this a "technical incident" and the athlete was given another chance to climb the route and therefore returned to isolation. Next out, Alexey Tomilov, charged up the route but was relegated to 5th place for having clipped to quickdraws incorrectly. Nikolay Kuzovlev placed third and only failed to top out since his shoelaces incredibly got caught in a quickdraw and he spent more than a minute trying to untangle himself. Park Heeyong then returned to the arena and his second attempt was quite astounding as he topped out more than a minute faster than Maxim Tomilov.

The Speed event was won by​Russia's Nikolay Shved and Maryam Filippova, ahead of their teammates Nikolay Kuzovlev and Natalya Kulikova.

It is worth pointing out that there was plenty of ice on the beautiful ice structure in Switzerland; hopes are high that the next stage in France will be as beautiful, spectacular and icy as two years ago. Temperatures permitting.

by Marco Servalli

RESULTS SAAS FEE
Men
1 HeeYong Park KOR TOP(7.01)
2 Maxim Tomilov RUS TOP(8.54)
3 Nikolay Kuzovlev RUS 18.24
4 Nikolay Primerov AZE 18.22
5 Alexey Tomilov RUS 16.22
6 Yevgen Kryvosheytsev UKR 11.15
7 Janez Svoljšak SLO 7.11
8 Evgeniy Novoseltsev RUS 3061

Women
1 Angelika Rainer ITA 19.29
2 WoonSeon Shin KOR 19.29
3 Maria Tolokonina RUS 18271
4 Maryam Filippova RUS 17.26
5 Lucie Hrozova CZE 17252
6 Nadezhda Gallyamova RUS 16.23
7 Marianne der van Steen 9.15
8 Petra Klingler SUI 2.09