Lead World Cup 2012 – Jorg Verhoeven and Momoka Oda win in Imst

In some respects Verhoeven was competing at home – seeing that he is based at nearby Innsbruck – and after having skipped the first two competitions he decided he couldn’t miss out on this third appointment… This proved a wise decision and with physical and mental batteries charged during his winter bouldering in America, Verhoeven now demonstrated his usual class and determination which had netted him the Lead World Cup 2008. The Dutchman beat Jakob Schubert and Sachi Amma by just one hold and the two were separated by their Semi-final result. The best in this previous round, Spaniard Ramón Julian Puigblanque, had to make do with 5th place and was beaten by Magnus Midtboe from Norway, yet he managed to climb higher than the remaining finalists, Cedric Lachat from Switzerland, Romain Desgranges from France and young German Thomas Tauporn.

The women’s field was won convincingly by Oda by climbing 3 holds higher than her main rival Mina Markovic who, in the Semi-Final, had been the only athlete to top out. Unfortunately a difficult move slightly lower stopped Johanna Ernst, Evgenia Malamid and Charlotte Durif , while Hélène Janicot, Yuka Kobayashi and Mathilde Brumagne finished 6th to 8th respectively. First excluded from the final was Jain Kim, along with other top athletes such as Katharina Posch, Magdalena Röck and the reigning World Champion Angela Eiter… which just goes to show how intense the battle to qualify for the finals has become.

Talking about World Champions: the competition at Imst was won of the final tests prior to the World Championship in Paris in mid- September. Before reaching the French capital though there is the final act of the Bouldering World Cup in Munich – where Anna Stöhr will be able to “have fun” seeing that mathematically she has already secured victory, while the men’s event goes down to the wire with a titanic battle between Kilian Fischhuber and Rustam Gelmanov. And obviously there’s also the Rock Master Festival at the end of August with it’s difficult Speed, Boulder and Lead competitions.


Results Imst, Austria 10-11/08/2012
Lead Men
1 Jorg Verhoeven NED 47+
2 Jakob Schubert AUT 46+
3 Sachi Amma JPN 46+
4 Magnus Midtboe NOR 44.5+
5 Ramón Julian Puigblanque ESP 35+
6 Cédric Lachat SUI 32+
7 Romain Desgranges FRA 27+
8 Thomas Tauporn GER 27+

Lead Women
1 Momoka Oda JPN 60+
2 Mina Markovic SLO 57+
3 Johanna Ernst AUT 51+
4 Evgenia Malamid RUS 51+
5 Charlotte Durif FRA 51+
6 Hélène Janicot FRA 50+
7 Yuka Kobayashi JPN 50+
8 Mathilde Brumagne BEL 48+