Ice World Cup 2010, Markus Bendler and Chloe Graftiaux win in Daone

Markus Bendler: 2, rest of the world: 0. After his winning debut in Kirov last week, the Austrian ice climber took home the sweepstakes in Daone yesterday to win the second stage of the Ice Climbing World Cup 2010. In the women's event hot favourite Angelika Rainer from nearby Meran failed to confirm her winning debut and her failure to qualify for the final left the doors open for Chloe Graftiaux. The Belgian's victory is confirmation once again that those who (like her) do well in sport climbing competitions have a great chance in doing extraordinarily well with ice axes and crampons, too-

As usual the Speed competition was commanded by a "Russian battalion" which not only resulted in victories for Pavel Batushev and Viktoria Shabalina, but also in a total domination of the entire podium, bar female bronze which went to Petkova Radka from Hungary.

The men's difficulty competiton lived up to expectations therefore, with Markus Bendler proving once again that he's the man to beat. It comes as no chance that the reigning World Champion has won three of the last four editions in Daone (and not counting his "mere" second place in 2008).

The Austrians getaway was contrasted by Park Hee Yong from Korea, the only athlete who together with Swissman Patrik Aufdenblatten managed to climb past the two ice cylinders on the long final route. But only Bendler managed to top out on this difficult 35m marathon after battling for a massive 9:49 minutes. Park Hee Yong climbed to within a few meters of the top and in the end had to make do with second place, while Aufdenblatten placed third.

The team of route setters, led by Attilio Munari, had calibrated the men's final to test the undisputed strength of the World Champion... and there can be no doubt that the Austrian had to pull out all the stops to reach the top. 4th place went to veteran Maxim Tomilov from Russia, while 5th went to eternal Yevgen Kryvosheytsev from the Ukraine. An unfortunate Herbert Klammer from Italy had to make do with 9th place, first excluded from the final.

In the women's event, after placing 5th in Kirov, Chloe Graftiaux took gold of the 9th Ice Mater in Daone with a perfect climb which resulted in the only top in the final. She was followed by veteran Stephanie Maureau from France and Lucie Hrzova from the Czech Republic, while Jeong Woon Wha from Korea placed 4th.

In the end Italian hopes were smashed by the Angelika Rainer's faux-pas... but not all is lost. Her thoughts are already concentrated on the next stage in Saas Fee: next weekend in Switzerland will prove to be decisive if she wants to be in the running for the final stage in Busteni in Romania!


Difficulty men
1 Bendler Markus AUS
2 Park Hee Yong KOR
3 Aufdenblatten Patrik CHE
4 Tomilov Maxim RUS
5 Kryvosheytsev Yevgen UKR
6 Lobzov Stanislav RUS
7 Tarasov Sergey RUS
8 Sypavin Valentyn UKR

Difficulty women
1 Graftiaux Chloe BEL
2 Maureau Stephanie FRA
3 Hrzova Lucie CZE
4 Jeong Woon Wha KOR
5 Gallyamova Anna
6 Feller Felicitas CHE
7 Petkova Radka BGR
8 Badalyan Ludmilla RUS

Speed men
1 Batushev Pavel RUS
2 Gulyaev Pavel RUS
3 Lysenko Igor RUS
4 Fyzullin Igor RUS

Speed women
1 Shabalina Viktoria RUS
2 Shubina Nadezda RUS
3 Petkova Radka BGR
4 Badalyan Ludmilla RUS