Ice Climbing World Cup 2017: Han Na Rai Song and HeeYong Park win in Saas Fee

One of the most important stages of the current Ice Climbing World Cup season took place in last weekend in Saas Fee’s famous car park which, for the occasion, transformed into a veritable ice arena. Almost 150 athletes from 20 nations clambered for previous World Cup points prior to the final showdown in Rabenstein in Italy’s Passeiertal, and those who graduated with top marks were Han Na Rai Song and HeeYong Park. Climbing highest in their respective finals, the two South Koreans not only won the stage but also now lead the provisional 2017 rankings.

In the women’s event Angelika Rainer, after a somewhat below par season, proved why she had previously won 5 World Cup stages here as well as the World Championships, fighting her way to second place. The South Tyrolean beat local athlete Petra Klinger, the reigning bouldering world champion who evidently is just as powerful with a pair of ice axes and crampons. In the men’s event Heeyong Park kept his winning form after victory in Cheongsong in South Korea a fortnight ago and beat the Russian brothers Alexey Tomilov and Maxim Tomilov (2nd and 3rd respectively).

In the Speed competition every athletes races up the ice “piste” three times. Ekaterina Koshcheeva clocked up the fastest time in 17:41’, ahead of Speed World Champion Maria Tolokonina and Nadezhda Gallyamova. The men’s competition was dominated by Vladimir Kartashev who twice managed to beat the 9 second barrier: 8:87 and 8:95. Leonid Malykh and Pavel Batushev settled for silver and bronze, after stopping the clock in 9:81 and 9:87.

The decisive final round of the Ice Climbing World Cup 2017 presented by The North Face Korea will take place at Rabenstein / Corvara in the Passeiertal from 27 - 29 January 2017.

HeeYong Park


Han Na Rai Song


Angelika Rainer



LEAD
MALE
1 Park HeeYong KOR
2 Tomilov Alexey RUS
3 Tomilov Maxim RUS
4 Kuzovlev Nikolai RUS
5 Svoljsak Janez SLO
6 Proshchenko Radomir RUS
7 Dengin Alexey RUS

FEMALE
1 Song Han Na Rai KOR
2 Rainer Angelika ITA
3 Klingler Petra SUI
4 Tolokonina Maria RUS
5 Gallyamova Nadezhda RUS
6 Vlasova Ekaterina RUS
7 Thomas Marion FRA
8 Van Der Steen Marianne NED

SPEED
MALE
1 Vladimir Kartashev RUS 08.87
2 Leonid Malykh RUS 09.81
3 Pavel Batushev RUS 09.87
4 Radomir Proshchenko RUS 10.24

FEMALE
1 Ekaterina Koshcheeva RUS 17.41
2 Maria Tolokonina RUS 17.85
3 Nadezhda Gallyamova RUS 19.24
4 Valeriia Bogdan RUS 19.67