IFSC Lead World Cup Xiamen: Report
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.
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).
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.
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+ |
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 |