Shauna Coxsey and Rustam Gelmanov win Kazo stage of Bouldering World Cup 2016

With no time to recover from the trials and tribulations of the first leg held in Meiringen in Switzerland a week ago, and the jet lag after the long journey; yesterday and today the athletes taking part in the Bouldering World Cup 2016 took to the stage at Kazo in Japan for the circuit’s second stage,

52 women and 68 men took part in yesterday’s qualifiers. Much to everyone’s surprise, the first to be excluded from the Semi-final was Martin Stranik, the Czech climber who had won silver in Switzerland and who, despite having qualified for this round, reached isolation just 4 minutes too late. . Anna Stöhr, Katharina Saurwein, the home favorites Akiyo Noguchi and Aya Onoe, Sean McColl, Jan Hoyer and Jernej Kruder are all some of the illustrious climbers who fell victim to the Semis, and further proof of how difficult progressing to the finals also comes from Russia’s Alexey Rubtsov, the winner in Switzerland a week ago.

One climber who did qualify for the last round, after a little luck earlier on in the competition, was Italy’s Michael Piccolruaz who all of a sudden was up against the very best for his second time (after qualifying for the finals in Innsbruck in 2004) having placed fifth equal. The South Tyrolean didn’t waste this golden opportunity and, during the tense battle of nerves, flashed two problems to win silver. Only Russia’s Rustam Gelmanov, the winner of the 2012 World Cup, did better than Piccolruaz by solving 3 of 4 problems (for the record, all first go). Piccolruaz achieved this historic result for Italian sport climbing by beating Kokoro Fuji, Jeremy Bonder, Dmitrii Sharafutdinov and Rolands Rubens.

Another climber who achieved a historic result in the land of the rising sun was Britain’s Shauna Coxsey who absolutely dominated the field to win her second competition in a row (third, if you include her victory at Munich, the last comp in the 2015 season). Evidently she’s the woman to beat and her 4 boulders sent in just 7 attempts, after having dominated the Semi-final, speak for themselves. The duel between her and Melissa Le Neve will probably be this season’s Leitmotif, and like a week ago the Frenchwoman had to settle for second place after sending "only" two problems. Local athlete Miho Nonoka completed her run third, separated by merely one attempt more than Le Neve, and she was followed by Swiss fighter Petra Klingler, France’s Fanny Gilbert and Belgium’s Chloé Caulier.

The Bouldering World Cup circuit now travels to Chongqing, China for the third stage on 30 April 30 and 1 May 1.

IFSC Climbing Worldcup (B) - Kazo (JPN) 2016
Male
1 Rustam Gelmanov RUS 3t3 4b4
2 Michael Piccolruaz ITA 2t2 4b8
3 Kokoro Fujii JPN 2t4 4b8
4 Jeremy Bonder FRA 2t8 4b12
5 Dmitrii Sharafutdinov RUS 1t2 3b8
6 Rolands Rugens LAT 0t 1b2
7 Sean Mccoll CAN
8 Jernej Kruder SLO
9 Jan Hojer GER
10 Alexander Averdunk GER
11 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
12 Tyler Landman GBR
13 Alexey Rubtsov RUS
14 James Kassay AUS
15 Tomoa Narasaki JPN
16 Baptiste Ometz SUI
17 Tomoaki Takata JPN
18 Alban Levier FRA
19 Manuel Cornu FRA
20 Martin Stranik CZE
21 Yuji Fujiwaki JPN
21 Kai Harada JPN
23 Nathan Phillips GBR
23 Keita Watabe JPN
25 Mickael Mawem FRA
25 Meichi Narasaki JPN
25 Rei Sugimoto JPN
28 Jorg Verhoeven NED
29 Yuta Kobata JPN
29 Makoto Yamauchi JPN
31 PASCAL Gagneux FRA
31 Tomoki Musha JPN
31 Sergii Topishko UKR
34 Alex Khazanov ISR
35 Naoki Shimatani JPN
35 Simon Unger GER
37 Jongwon Chon KOR
37 Lukas Ennemoser AUT
39 Yuki Hada JPN
39 Tsukuru Hori JPN
41 Andrzej Mecherzynski- Wiktor POL
41 Haibin Qu CHN
43 Masahiro Higuchi JPN
43 Atsushi Shimizu JPN
45 Minoru Nakano JPN
45 Stefan Scarperi ITA
47 Ryohei Kameyama JPN
47 pan Yufei CHN
49 Kin Wah Lai CAN
49 Hei-yeung Lam HKG
51 Ben Abel AUS
51 Cheung- chi Shoji Chan HKG
51 Zida Ma CHN
54 Benjamin Blaser SUI
55 Keita Mogaki JPN
55 Gregor Vezonik SLO
57 Wang Dingguo CHN
57 WAN TONG Lok MAC
57 Hayato Nakamura JPN
60 Eric Sethna CAN
60 Jun Shibanuma JPN
60 Ka-chun Yau HKG
63 Jiun-Jie Tzeng TPE
64 Siu-hei Tang HKG
65 Jakub Jodlowski POL
65 Chun-Hsiang Wang TPE
65 Danila Yamchuk LAT
68 Chi-fung Au HKG
68 Peter Erard USA

Female
1 Shauna Coxsey GBR 4t7 4b7
2 Melissa Le Neve FRA 2t2 4b5
3 Miho Nonaka JPN 2t3 4b6
4 Petra Klingler SUI 2t3 3b4
5 Fanny Gibert FRA 1t1 2b4
6 Chloé Caulier BEL 1t3 3b8
7 Michaela Tracy GBR
8 Monika Retschy GER
9 Aya Onoe JPN
10 Anna Stöhr AUT
11 Berit Schwaiger AUT
12 Clementine Kaiser FRA
13 Alannah Yip CAN
14 Leah Crane GBR
15 Katharina Saurwein AUT
16 Tomoko Kajima JPN
17 Mei Kotake JPN
18 Sol Sa KOR
18 Karoline Sinnhuber AUT
20 Akiyo Noguchi JPN
21 Sierra Blair-Coyle USA
21 Alizée Dufraisse FRA
23 Aika Tajima JPN
23 Saari Watanabe JPN
25 Hinako Furukawa JPN
25 Asaki Hagiwara JPN
27 Misato Nishikori JPN
27 serika Ookawachi JPN
29 Hung Ying Lee TPE
29 Saeko Sugimura JPN
31 Katarzyna Ekwinska POL
31 Vera Zijlstra NED
33 Mao Nakamura JPN
33 Kokoro Takata JPN
35 Nanako Kura JPN
35 Risa Ota JPN
37 Natalie Bärtschi SUI
37 Miwa Oba JPN
39 Momoka Kaneko JPN
39 Yuka Kobayashi JPN
41 Emma Horan AUS
41 Ayari Sakamoto JPN
43 Rong Jiang CHN
43 Chisato Kanazawa JPN
43 Elise Sethna CAN
46 Celeste Wall CAN
47 Claire Kassay AUS
47 Margaux Pucheux FRA
49 Mária Čelková SVK
49 Jihyeon Jeong KOR
49 Satomi Tachibana JPN
52 Pui-yim Lau HKG
52 Juliana Price USA