Rustam Gelmanov and Anna Stöhr win Bouldering World Cup 2012

In the end the much-anticipated showdown never took place. The challenge to the final hold between 2009 Bouldering World Champion Rustam Gelmanov and the five-times World Cup winner Kilian Fischhuber didn’t materialise because, much to everyone’s surprise, the Austrian failed to qualify for the Semi-Final. After years of total domination this is certainly an important exclusion for Fischhuber who up until Saturday had been tied for first place along with Gelmanov. The Russian’s fourth place proved more than enough therefore to win the overall standings and he finished behind his teammate Dmitrii Sharafutdinov, Canada’s Sean McColl and Austria’s Jakob Schubert to secure his first-ever World Cup title. Rei Sugimoto from Japan and Stewart Watson from England finished just behind Gelmanov in a packed final (official figures talk about 15,000 spectators in total) fit for Munich’s famous Olympiastadion.

The women’s competition proved a true battle of nerves and while the best in the Qualification, Mina Markovic from Slovenia, surprisingly lost her way in the Semi-Final, the four problems in the Final were sent by all six finalists except for Mélanie Sandoz. Tension was palpable and every attempt would turn out to be decisive: to send all 4 problems Anna Gallyamova needed 11 attempts, Melissa Le Neve needed 10, home-athlete Juliane Wurm 6 to win bronze, and Anna Stöhr a mere 5 to win silver. And gold? Well, last night Akiyo proved impeccable with a match-winning run: 4 boulders sent, all straight off! This extraordinary performance confirmed her second place in the World Cup 2012 standings, immediately behind Anna Stöhr who had already secured her third World Cup win one round early, and ahead of England’s Shauna Coxsey who could do nothing to defend her lead in this final round because of an injury she incurred at Switzerland’s Magic Wood.

Results Munich, Germany 25-26/08/2012
Boulder Men
1 Dmitrii Sharafutdinov 1986 RUS 4t10 4b9
2 Sean McColl 1987 CAN 4t10 4b10
3 Jakob Schubert 1990 AUT 3t10 4b17
4 Rustam Gelmanov 1987 RUS 3t11 3b11
5 Rei Sugimoto 1991 JPN 2t5 2b3
6 Stewart Watson 1984 GBR 2t8 3b9

Boulder Women
1 Akiyo Noguchi 1989 JPN 4t4 4b4
2 Anna Stöhr 1988 AUT 4t5 4b5
3 Juliane Wurm 1990 GER 4t6 4b5
4 Melissa Le Neve 1989 FRA 4t10 4b6
5 Anna Gallyamova 1986 RUS 4t11 4b9
6 Mélanie Sandoz 1987 FRA 0t 4b9


BOULDERING WORLD CUP 2012 FINAL STANDINGS
Men
1. Rustam Gelmanov RUS 400.00
2. Kilian Fischhuber AUT 354.00
3. Jakob Schubert AUT 318.00
4. Dmitrii Sharafutdinov RUS 304.00
5. Sean McColl CAN 281.00
6. Guillaume Glairon Mondet FRA 261.00
7. Rei SUGIMOTO JPN 204.00
8. Thomas Caleyron FRA 158.00
9. Jonas Baumann GER 140.00
10. Jernej Kruder SLO 126.00
11. Jorg Verhoeven NED 118.00
12. Tsukuru Hori JPN 112.00
13. Lukas Ennemoser AUT 107.00
14. Alexey Rubtsov RUS 104.00
15. Stewart Watson GBR 100.00
16. Stefan Danker GER 91.00
17. Klemen Becan SLO 90.00
18. Loïc Gaidioz FRA 84.00
19. Jeremy Bonder FRA 78.00
20. Jan Hojer GER 75.00

Women
1. Anna Stöhr AUT 425.00
2. Akiyo Noguchi JPN 394.00
3. Shauna Coxsey GBR 350.00
4. Mina Markovic SLO 304.00
5. Alex Puccio USA 245.00
6. Melissa Le Neve FRA 238.00
Juliane Wurm GER 238.00
8. Mélanie Sandoz FRA 191.00
9. Momoka ODA JPN 189.00
10. Jain Kim KOR 171.00
11. Katharina Saurwein AUT 162.00
12. Anne-Laure Chevrier FRA 145.00
13. Anna Gallyamova RUS 137.00
14. Monika Retschy GER 127.00
15. Cecile AVEZOU FRA 109.00
16. Olga Iakovleva RUS 89.00
17. Tatiana Shemulinkina RUS 82.00
18. Vera Zijlstra NED 59.00
19. Yana Chereshneva RUS 58.00
Mina Leslie-Wujastyk GBR 58.00