Jakob Schubert and Mina Markovic big in China

Poker! After victories in Chamonix, Briançon and Xining last week, Jakob Schubert has now won the 4th stage of the Lead World Cup 2011 in Changzhi, China. The Austrian beat closest rival Ramón Julian Puigblanque by a tiny margin - a hold held compared to a hold only touched - while Sachi Amma from Japan placed third.

In the women's event Mina Markovic continued her winning form - after victories in Chamonix and in Xining - and tied for first place along with Jain Kim from Korea whom she had only just beat the previous week thanks to her better semi-final result. Although teammate Maja Vidmar topped out along with Markovic and Kim she had to settle for third due to an inferior qualification result.

The battle for overall domination in the Women's World Cup is still wide open with Markovic 45 points ahead of Kim, while with four clean victories Schubert obviously leads the overall ranking, 124 points ahead of Ramón Julian Puigblanque. It's early days yet to make predictions seeing that the 2011 Cup is comprised of 10 events and, in truth, things could easily have swung in many other climber's favour since victories in both Changzhi and Xinig came about thanks to the closest of margins. The next competition, Puurs at the end of September, will be an important turnpoint therefore and it'll be interesting to see if the reigning World Champion Ramón Julian Puigblanque can unlock the key, or whether we're witnessing a changing of the guards at the very top!


Changzhi (CHN) 2011 07./08.09.2011
Men
1 Jakob Schubert AUT 33 
2 Ramón Julian Puigblanque ESP -33
3 Sachi Amma JPN 24
4 Thomas Tauporn GER 24
5 Manuel Romain FRA -24
6 Hyunbin Min KOR -24
7 Mario Lechner AUT -13
8 Romain Desgranges FRA 12 
Women
1 Jain Kim KOR Top
1 Mina Markovic SLO Top
3 Maja Vidmar SLO Top
4 Seuran Han KOR 29
5 Charlotte Durif FRA -26.5
6 Yana Chereshneva RUS 26
7 Katharina Posch AUT -26
8 Christine Schranz AUT -8

Xining (CHN) 2011 - 02./03.09.2011
Men
1 Jakob Schubert AUT Top
2 Sachi Amma JPN Top
3 Manuel Romain FRA Top
4 Romain Desgranges FRA Top
5 Ramón Julian Puigblanque ESP -45
6 Thomas Tauporn GER 42 
7 Akito MATSUSHIMA JPN -34
8 Hyunbin Min KOR 13 
Women
1 Mina Markovic SLO Top
2 Jain Kim KOR Top
3 Katharina Posch AUT 43
4 Maja Vidmar SLO -41
5 Momoka ODA JPN -41
6 Charlotte Durif FRA 40
7 Yana Chereshneva RUS -40
8 Barbara Bacher AUT -40

Overall ranking 2011 after 4 competitions
Men
1. Schubert Jakob AUT 400.00
2. Julian Puigblanque Ramón ESP 276.00
3. Amma Sachi JPN 255.00
4. Romain Manuel FRAU 239.00
5. Desgranges Romain FRA 185.00
6. Min Hyunbin KOR 172.00
7. Tauporn Thomas GER 152.00
8. Lechner Mario AUT 137.00
9. Supper Gauthier FRA 131.00
10. Chernikov Mikhail RUS 104.00
Women
1. Markovic Mina SLO 345.00
2. Kim Jain KOR 300.00
3. Vidmar Maja SLO 240.00
4. Posch Katharina AUT 190.00
5. Ciavaldini Caroline FRA 181.00
6. Durif Charlotte FRA 173.00
7. Schranz Christine AUT 171.00
8. Chereshneva Yana RUS 170.00
9. Oda Momoka JPN 142.00
10. Eiter Angela AUT 140.00