UKC

IFSC Lead World Cup Xiamen: Report

© IFSC/Eddie Fowke

The latest round of the IFSC Lead World Cup took place in Xiamen, China last weekend. Team GB's Molly Thompson-Smith maintained her run of good form and placed =6th. Due to poor weather, the women's semi-final round was cancelled and the top competitors - the 13 women tied in 1st place after topping both qualifiers - went straight to finals.

Molly Thompson-Smith climbing to 6th place in Xiamen.  © IFSC/Eddie Fowke
Molly Thompson-Smith climbing to 6th place in Xiamen.
© IFSC/Eddie Fowke

Despite a difficult round in Wujiang for Belgium's Anak Verhoeven, the tables were turned in Xiamen as she took her third ever World Cup victory, smoothly topping the final climb. 16 year-old Ashima Shiraishi (USA) achieved her first senior World Cup medal, finishing in 2nd place behind Anak and ahead of series favourite - and now overall champion for the second year running - Janja Garnbret, who fell one move lower than Ashima. Molly was just one move away from matching Janja's 33+ score, which was also reached by Jessica Pilz (AUT) and Mina Markovic (SLO).

photo
Keiichiro Korenaga qualifying in Xiamen, China.
© Eddie Fowke/IFSC

Fortunately, the weather didn't disturb the men's competition schedule. The Japanese team were dominant, with Keiichiro Korenaga winning the round and bouldering star Tomoa Narasaki taking 2nd place once again in his second lead event of the season. China's YuFei Pan finished just short of Tomoa's score. Chon Jongwon (KOR) - another athlete generally considered a bouldering specialist - placed 4th in his second lead World Cup, after finishing 6th in Wujiang.

Men's podium Xiamen: Narasaki, Korenaga, Pan.  © Eddie Fowke/IFSC
Men's podium Xiamen: Narasaki, Korenaga, Pan.
© Eddie Fowke/IFSC

Women's podium Xiamen: Shiraishi, Verhoeven, Garnbret.  © Eddie Fowke/IFSC
Women's podium Xiamen: Shiraishi, Verhoeven, Garnbret.
© Eddie Fowke/IFSC

The next round is in Kranj, Slovenia 11th-12th November.

IFSC Climbing Worldcup (L,S) - Xiamen (CHN) 2017

MENs lead

Rank Name Nation Semi's Final
1 Keiichiro Korenaga JPN 41+ 38+
2 Tomoa Narasaki JPN 45 34
3 YuFei Pan CHN 44+ 33
4 Jongwon Chon KOR 45+ 31+
5 Fedir Samoilov UKR 44+ 30+
6 Kokoro Fujii JPN 40+ 29+
7 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 45 26+
8 HaiBin Qu CHN 44+ 17+
9 Thomas Joannes FRA 40+
10 Hanwool Kim KOR 39+
11 Masahiro Higuchi JPN 39+
12 Minyoung Lee KOR 30+
13 Martin Tekles GER 26
14 Francesco Vettorata ITA 26
15 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 25+
16 Yuki Hada JPN 25+
17 Domen Skofic SLO 25+
18 Max Rudigier AUT 25+
19 Elan JonasMcRae CAN 25+
20 Alberto Gotta ITA 25+
Full results

WOMENs lead

Rank Name Nation Semi's Final
1 Anak Verhoeven BEL Top
2 Ashima Shiraishi USA 34+
3 Janja Garnbret SLO 33+
4 Jessica Pilz AUT 33+
5 Mina Markovic SLO 33+
6 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 32+
6 Molly Thompson- Smith GBR 32+
8 Jain Kim KOR 31+
8 Hannah Schubert AUT 31+
10 Risa Ota JPN 23+
11 Mathilde Becerra FRA 22+
11 Julia Chanourdie FRA 22+
11 Mei Kotake JPN 22+
14 Dinara Fakhritdinova RUS
15 Salomé Romain FRA
16 LaMu RENQING CHN
17 Magdalena Röck AUT
18 Claudia Ghisolfi ITA
19 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR
20 Netta Fredman ISR
Full results


This post has been read 5,312 times

Return to Latest News



17 Oct, 2017
Congratulations Molly! Such tough competition.
18 Oct, 2017
Thought this was a really good comp despite the weather. Great effort Molly. Seems like making finals is now a regular thing for her but it's easy to forget no one from the UK had made lead finals for years before Molly, so no small acheivement. Good to Anak finally win a world cup this year. And looks like Ashima is starting to do well too. The women's lead is now really exciting. Congrats to Janja for taking the title again though. She's certainly the one to beat.
18 Oct, 2017
I thought the climbing was great, and I'm blown away by how Molly has managed to up her game so well and so consistently. You do have to wonder though, about the wisdom of building a non-waterproof wall for an outdoor comp in a part of the world where heavy rains are common.
18 Oct, 2017
I wondered about the outdoor wall too but when I had a look at a weather app for Xiamen it seemed like the likelihood of rain at that particular time of year was actually really low. So I concluded that it must just have been down to very bad luck.
18 Oct, 2017
I don't understand why all world cup walls don't have a big canopy erected from the top to provide shelter in stronger winds, and a big tarp placed on the top and down the back to prevent seepage. Fairly quick fix and not too expensive I'd have thought.
Loading Notifications...
Facebook Twitter Copy Email