La Sportiva Legends Only 2012

by Björn Pohl - UKC Dec/2012
This news story has been read 8,219 times

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+Sean McColl, winner of the La Sportiva Legends Only 2012, 80 kb
Sean McColl, winner of the La Sportiva Legends Only 2012
Björn Pohl - UKC, Dec 2012
© Thomas Karlsson/DN

This year's La Sportiva Legends Only at Klättercentret in Stockholm turned out even bigger and better than last year's, with Canadian Sean McColl sealing the deal by doing the fifth and last problem exactly when he had to to beat Dmitry Sharafutdinov into second spot.

Legends Only is an "after work" competition where the athletes have a two-three hour work session to figure out the problems the night prior to the competition. The problems, set by a time of five with Shauna Coxsey as chief route setter, are all hard, probably in the 8A-8B range.

The work session didn't give many clues about who was going win, with all climbers looking strong and with decent chances of doing all five problems, and the competition turned out very close with small but crucial mistakes making all the difference.

In the end Sean McColl ended up first ahead of Dmitry, who blew his chances by making too many tries on the first problem of the night. Both did four out of the five problems.
+Jakob Schubert in the La Sportiva Legends Only 2012, 89 kb
Jakob Schubert in the La Sportiva Legends Only 2012
Björn Pohl - UKC, Dec 2012
© Thomas Karlsson/DN

If Sean hadn't done the last problem on his second try, Dmitry would have been the Legend of the year, but now, as last year, he ended up in second position.

The climbers were all very happy with the competition and really enjoyed themselves, as did the 700+ spectators.
Again, the route setters succeeded in finding the exact right level of difficulty on the very varied problems which challenged the full spectrum of the athletes' abilities, from slopey slabs to complex dynos.

The results:
1. Sean McColl, CAN
2. Dmitry Sharafutdinov, RUS
3. Jakob Schubert, AUT
4. Guillaume Glairon-Mondet, FRA
5. Adam Ondra, CZE

The whole competition can be watched at SVTplay. The commentary is in Swedish, but all the interviews with the athletes and Shauna Coxsey are in English.

Hundreds of photos Here

Now we are all looking forward to Clément Perotti/Sand Stones' behind the scenes video which should be out any day now. I can promise you some truly legendary footage.

La Sportiva Legends Only is sponsored by: La Sportiva, Klättercentret, Grönt Vatten, Entre Prises , Rokodromo, PsycoArtHolds, JM Climbing, E9, Bel-Air Limousine and Showlighters


* Forums ( Read More... | 28 comments, 07 Dec 2012 )
The guy who raised the whole point about the language I think is Lebanese, i.e. not a native English speaker. Plus I think he didn't realise that it was filmed for Swedish TV and webcast just as an 'extra' for every one...
TobyA - 07 Dec 2012

The competition was nice, and I like the way the format is different (I.E. "after work"). Keep in mind it is not a true competition however, as it is invite only, and only among "la sportiva"...
Atmos - 07 Dec 2012

As an innocent unbiased "English speaker" with no agenda here, I can say that we use both. Scandinavia is more common, "Nordic countries" tends to be used by people who want or need to show(*) that...
Blue Straggler - 05 Dec 2012

Not that it really matters but as a Northern European (British) political scientist who has live for a long time in Norden, although technically not Scandinavia (Finland) I would strongly disagree with that. I don't...
TobyA - 04 Dec 2012

Northern Europe is, by common use, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and Finland. Any business/organisation/whatever that refers to Northern Europe or "the Nordics" means those countries. The UK and Ireland...
Franz the Stampede - 04 Dec 2012

I have to think you are wrong. The UK is part of Northern Europe. Considering that the uk makes up 62,000,000 of the 99,000,000 in Northern Europe, your point makes no sense. Also the fact that the Scandinavians speak...
Jiduvah - 04 Dec 2012

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