Meyer and Perlova win World Cup Bouldering at Fiera di Primiero

Meyer and Perlova win the first stage of the World Cup Bouldering 2002at Fiera di Primiero

June 2002

The first stage of the World Cup Boulder, held on Saturday at Fiera di Primiero, Italy, was won by Jerome Meyer and Natalia Perlova.

The Frenchman, winner of the World Cup in 2001, beat his teammate Daniel Du Lac and Serik Kazbekov from the Ukraine in a grueling Final that tested all athletes to the extreme. As night fell Meyer topped out on three of the final six boulder problems - no mean feat seeing that Boulder 2 didn't even see a zone and Boulder 6 was climbed, in the dying minutes of the competition, by Malcolm Smith only.

Natalia Perlova's two tops ensured victory in an event which, much like the men's competition, proved to be at the comlete limit. Olga Yakovleva topped out on just one problem to place second, ahead of Stella Marchisio who needed one attempt more to send the boulder. Last year's winner Sandrine Levet was absent due to injury.

The second stage of the World Cup Boulder will be held in in Lecco, on 26-27 June. The athletes at Fiera di Primiero seemed all to be much on a par, so there will be plenty to fight for in a fortnight's time...

Competition Portfolio

	Results Men	Results Women
1.	Jerome Meyer	Natalia Perlova
2.	Daniel Dulac	Olga Yakovleva
3.	Serik Kazbekov	Stella Marchisio
4.	Kilian Fischhuber	Myriam Motteau
5.	Malcom Smith	Corine Theroux
6.	Christian Core	Giulia Giammarco
7.	Mauro Calibani	Vera Kotasova
8.	FrÃ©dÃ©ric Tuscan	Lisa Rands
9.	Georgos Progulakis	Leire Aguirre M.
10.	Riccardo Scarian	Isabella Ritsch