Viktoriia Meshkova & Jernej Kruder crowned European Boulder Champions 2020

The 2020 European Climbing Championship continues at an incessant pace and despite illustrious names missing fro the starting list - as noted previously, several nations have decided not to participate due to Coronavirus including Italy, Austria, France and Spain - the competitions have been practically perfect so far. After the first Speed ​​results on Saturday and the Boulder qualifications yesterday, today was the day of reckoning for the explosive mix of power and technique.

Russia’s Viktoriia Meshkova and Slovenia’s Jernej Kruder dominated the semifinals this morning, and in the finals this afternoon they managed to keep their nerve to take the win. With 4 tops and 4 zones the 20-year-old from Ekaterinburg beat Chloe Caulier by the narrowest of margins after the Belgian had impressed all with her amazing power, while Serbia’s Stasa Gejo produced a memorable, epic battle to place third . Although she failed to reclaim the title she’d won in 2017, after a year out of the game due to injury, this bronze medal is nothing short of miraculous. Three German athletes completed the ranking: Lucia Dörffel finished 4th, Alma Bestvater placed 5th and Afra Hönig closed in 6th position.

In the men's competition Jernej Kruder was quite rightly nicknamed Jernej Cruiser: the Slovenian was a cut above the rest today and his domination of the impossible looking slab, solved by him only and in less than 30 seconds, was a true bouldering "masterclass". 2 tops and 3 zones guaranteed him the title, which joins his 2018 overall World Cup win, ahead of the Russians Sergei Luzhetskii with 1 top and 4 zones and his teammate Nikolai Iarilovets with 1 top and 3 zones. Ram Levin of Israel placed 4th, followed by Nicolas Collin of Belgium in 5th position and Sergei Skorodumov of Russia in 6th. 

The competitions continue tomorrow with the Lead qualification rounds that will be streamed tomorrow from 8:00 CET

Results female
1 Viktoriia Meshkova RUS 4t4z 6 5
2 Chloe Caulier BEL 4t4z 6 6
3 Stasa Gejo SRB 2t4z 4 4
4 Lucia Dörffel GER 2t3z 3 3
5 Alma Bestvater GER 1t4z 2 9
6 Afra Hönig GER 1t3z 4 4
7 Eliška Bulenová CZE
8 Ekaterina Kipriianova RUS
9 Elena Krasovskaia RUS
10 Ayala Kerem ISR
11 Irina Kuzmenko RUS
12 Eliska Adamovska CZE
13 Hannah Meul GER
14 Molly Thompson-Smith GBR
15 Yael Taub ISR
16 Anna Zaikina RUS
17 Vana Piccini CRO
18 Marketa Janosova CZE
19 Aleksandra Kalucka POL
20 Petra Klingler SUI
21 Natalia Kalucka POL
22 Michaela Smetanova CZE
23 Vanda Michalkova SVK
24 Nika Potapova UKR
25 Naama Yohai ISR
26 Adela Bajerova CZE
27 Ekaterina Novitskaia RUS
28 Noa Shiran ISR
29 Tereza Širůčková CZE
30 Yevheniia Cherniavska UKR
31 Yelyzaveta Lavrykova UKR
32 Anna Brozek POL
32 Patrycja Chudziak POL
Aleksandra Miroslaw POL

Results male
1 Jernej Kruder SLO 2t3z 2 3
2 Sergei Luzhetskii RUS 1t4z 3 8
3 Nikolai Iarilovets RUS 1t3z 2 7
4 Ram Levin ISR 1t3z 2 7
5 Nicolas Collin BEL 1t3z 3 8
6 Sergei Skorodumov RUS 0t3z 0 4
7 Anze Peharc SLO
8 Aleksei Rubtsov RUS
9 Edvards Gruzitis LAT
10 Alex Khazanov ISR
11 Martin Stranik CZE
12 Yuval Shemla ISR
13 Geva Levin ISR
14 Nils Favre SUI
15 William Bosi GBR
16 Nimrod Marcus ISR
17 Vadim Timonov RUS
18 Simon Lorenzi BEL
19 Peter Kuric SVK
20 Sascha Lehmann SUI
21 Baptiste Ometz SUI
22 Sergei Tiupyshev RUS
23 Rolands Rugens LAT
24 Kipras Baltrunas LTU
25 Carmel Raz Romeo ISR
26 Dylan Chuat SUI
27 Hannes Puman SWE
28 Fedir Samoilov UKR
29 Stepan Volf CZE
30 Emil Abrahamsson SWE
31 Leonid Osadchyi UKR
32 Rolf Fredrik Serlachius SWE
33 Tomas Plevko SVK
34 Simon Potucek CZE
34 Stepan Potucek CZE
36 Mykhayil Tkachuk UKR
37 Eduardas Jeriomenko LTU
38 Jakub Konecny CZE
39 Bohdan Botnar UKR
40 Jan Kriz CZE
41 Nikola Kramaric CRO
42 Danyil Boldyrev UKR
42 Marcin Dzienski POL