Kranj, penultimate stage of the Lead World Cup 2011

Kranj in Slovenia will hold the ninth and penultimate stage of the Lead World Cup 2011 this weekend and 97 athletes from 24 different countries are expected to take part in this Slovenian evnt. Even if Jakob Schubert has mathematically already secured overall victory (with an amazing 7 victories in 8 comps), the battle for second and third is heating up: Ramón Julian Puigblanque has 561 points, Sachi Amma from Japan 480 and currently 4th placed Frenchman Manuel Romain 461. In the women's event the battle for first is still to be decided with Slovenian Mina Markovic currently in the lead with 641 points, followed by Jain Kim from Korea (500), Maja Vidmar from Slovenia (453) and Katharina Posch (357).

The Italian FASI sport climbing federation has chosen the following athletes: Jenny Lavarda and Sara Avoscan, and Martino Ischia, Stefano Ghisolfi, Silvio Reffo, Marcello Bombardi and Francesco Vettorata.

Expectations are high, as always, for this ancient competition which in 2005 brought Italy luck when Flavio Crespi won both the event and the Lead World Cup. The venue has the same ever since 1996, i.e. when the youngest Italian athletes were a mere 3 years old. To them, and to all the others, good luck!

Saturday 19/11/2011
09:00 Qualifications men
14:00 Qualifications women
20:00 Semifinal
Sunday 20/11/2011
17:00 Final

The competition will be streamed live on www.ifsc.tv. The 10th and final stage will be held in Barcelona, Spain on 26 and 27 November.


Past winners in Kranj
1996 - Laurence Guyon (FRA) and Arnaud Petit (FRA)
1997 - Liv Sansoz (FRA) and Chris Sharma (USA)
1998 - Liv Sansoz (FRA) and Yuji Hirayama (JPN)
1999 - Liv Sansoz (FRA) and Eugeni Ovtchinnikov (RUS)
2000 - Liv Sansoz (FRA) and Yuji Hirayama (JPN)
2001 - Martina Cufar (SLO) and Tomas Mrazek (CZE)
2002 - Muriel Sarkany (BEL) and Ramon Julian Puigblanque (ESP)
2003 - Muriel Sarkany (BEL) and Ramon Julian Puigblanque (ESP)
2004 - Angela Eiter (AUT) and Tomas Mrazek (CZE)
2005 - Angela Eiter (AUT) and Flavio Crespi (ITA)
2006 - Maja Vidmar (SLO) and David Lama (AUT)
2007 - Maja Vidmar (SLO) and Cedric Lachat (SUI)
2008 - Johanna Ernst (AUT) and Klemen Becan (SLO)
2009 - Mina Markovic (SLO) and Adam Ondra (CZE)
2010 - Jain Kim (KOR) and Ramon Julian Puigblanque (ESP)