Shauna Coxsey and Tomoa Narasaki win Chongqing stage of Bouldering World Cup 2016

After the second stage in Japan last weekend, the third leg of the Bouldering World Cup 2016 took place in China’s Chongqing yesterday and today; 63 men and 36 women lined up for the event that, after the sweltering Qualification and Semifinals, paved the way for the finals which somewhat surprisingly excluded a host of top climbers including current second-placed Melissa Le Neve from France and last week’s winner Rustam Gelmanov. The Japanese climbers in particular felt the lack of pressure in Chongqing after their relatively poor home performance and fielded an amazing five athletes in the finals, but it was Shauna Coxsey from Great Britain who dominated the Semis and made it clear she was intent on extending her lead in the overall standings after victories in the first two stages. After the Semis last year’s Bouldering World Cup winner Jongwon Chon led the provisional men’s result, having needed just one attempt less than expert Jorg Verhoeven to send three problems.

In the women’s finals, both Shauna Coxsey and Miho Nonaka immediately took the lead by sending the first problem in three attempts, while Mei Kotake and Akiyo Noguchi needed a few more attempts to keep themselves in the running. There was no change in the standings after the second problem since this proved too difficult for everyone, while it was on boulder #3 that Coxsey created her masterpiece, climbing the problem first go where everyone one else except Noguchi failed completely. The Japanese, first out from isolation as she had qualified last from the Semis, piled the pressure on by sending the fourth and final problem 3rd go, but Coxsey kept her cool and mirrored the Japanese performance to take home her third victory in a row this season.

In the men’s finals, Tomoa Narasaki won his first ever gold medal in a senior competition. Second out of isolation, he took an early lead on boulder #1 and then clung on to this by flashing boulders #2 and #3. Germany’s Jan Hojer had a poor start and failed to make headway on the first two problems, but then flashed problem #3 and was the only athlete to solve the last problem. It was thanks to this last-minute performance that he slipped into second place to take silver, just ahead of Jongwon Chon. Kokoro Fuji and Alexey Rubtsov trailed to place 4th and 5th respectively, while Verhoeven had to come to terms with the fact that, today in Chongqing, wasn't his day.

IFSC Climbing Worldcup (B, S) - Chongqing (CHN) 2016
Men
1 Tomoa Narasaki JPN 3t8 3b4
2 Jan Hojer GER 2t3 4b13
3 Jongwon Chon KOR 2t5 4b15
4 Kokoro Fujii JPN 2t13 4b14
5 Alexey Rubtsov RUS 1t8 3b6
6 Jorg Verhoeven NED 0t 2b2
7 Sean McColl CAN
8 Sergii Topishko UKR
9 Rustam Gelmanov RUS
10 Jeremy Bonder FRA
11 Dmitrii Sharafutdinov RUS
12 Jernej Kruder SLO
13 Tsukuru Hori JPN
14 Alban Levier FRA
15 Tyler Landman GBR
16 Baptiste Ometz SUI
17 Rolands Rugens LAT
18 Rei Sugimoto JPN
19 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
20 Yuji Fujiwaki JPN
21 Andrzej Mecherzynski- Wiktor POL
21 Makoto Yamauchi JPN
23 Manuel Cornu FRA
23 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
25 Tomoaki Takata JPN
25 Keita Watabe JPN
27 Zhouwen Huang CHN
27 Haibin Qu CHN
29 James Kassay AUS
29 Zida Ma CHN
31 Jakub Jodlowski POL
31 Mickael Mawem FRA
33 Chua Dennis SIN
33 Pascal Gagneux FRA
35 Alex Khazanov ISR
35 Stefan Scarperi ITA
37 Jabee Kim KOR
37 Gregor Vezonik SLO
39 Minoru Nakano JPN
39 Simon Unger GER
41 Cheung- Chi Shoji Chan HKG
41 Hei-Yeung Lam HKG
43 Chi-Fung Au HKG
43 Atsushi Shimizu JPN
45 Yulianto Abudzar INA
45 Alexander Averdunk GER
47 Benjamin Blaser SUI
47 Ka-Chun Yau HKG
49 Elan Jonasmcrae CAN
49 Wan Tong Lok MAC
51 Sungjoon Chae KOR
51 Changfeng Qu CHN
53 Wang Dingguo CHN
53 Mohd Hazlee SIN
53 Siu-Hei Tang HKG
53 Pan Yufei CHN
57 Hilman Mohd SIN
58 Ben Abel AUS
58 Kin Wah Lai CAN
58 Danila Yamchuk LAT
61 Yerzhan Beisembayev KAZ
62 Qinghua Wang CHN
63 Sufriyanto Rindi INA

Women
1 Shauna Coxsey GBR 3t7 4b8
2 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 3t12 4b13
3 Miho Nonaka JPN 1t3 2b4
4 Mei Kotake JPN 1t6 2b6
5 Karoline Sinnhuber AUT 0t 2b5
6 Monika Retschy GER 0t 2b6
7 Melissa Le Neve FRA
8 Chloé Caulier BEL
9 Fanny Gibert FRA
10 Michaela Tracy GBR
11 Clementine Kaiser FRA
12 Sierra Blair-Coyle USA
13 Petra Klingler SUI
14 Aya Onoe JPN
15 Berit Schwaiger AUT
16 Sol Sa KOR
17 Leah Crane GBR
18 Katharina Saurwein AUT
19 Yuka Kobayashi JPN
20 Hung Ying Lee TPE
21 Alannah Yip CAN
22 Alizée Dufraisse FRA
23 Aika Tajima JPN
24 Ayari Sakamoto JPN
25 Katarzyna Ekwinska POL
26 Natalie Bärtschi SUI
26 Mária Čelková SVK
26 Margaux Pucheux FRA
26 Elnaz Rekabi IRI
30 Yuzhen Baima CHN
31 Claire Kassay AUS
32 Emma Horan AUS
33 Lamu Renqing CHN
33 Vera Zijlstra NED
35 Miwa Oba JPN
36 Rong Jiang CHN
36 Minseon Kim KOR