In the second of three consecutive weekends featuring IFSC World Cups, the focus turned to both Lead and Speed climbers in Wujiang this weekend. The speed climbing saw new milestones and plenty of upsets.
American Emma Hunt faced off against the fastest woman in the world, Aleksandra Miroslaw of Poland. Miroslaw slipped low on the wall and had another stumble on the way up putting her well behind her typical pace. This opened the door for Hunt, but she slipped with just a few holds to go. Ultimately, Hunt touched the pad in 6.85 seconds, while Miroslaw touched one hundredth of a second later, sending Hunt to the semifinals and ending Miroslaw’s competition. In the semis, Hunt had the second fastest time, but the fastest was put in by the other woman on the wall, Jimin Jeong, while Shaoquin Zhang advanced to the final after Lijuan Deng fell in their race.
Hunt put in her best time on the day in the Small Final but, ultimately, it was not enough as Deng put together an impressive 6.34 to win the bronze medal. Jeong was unable to beat Zhang, who took home gold in the Final in front of her home crowd.
On the men’s side world record holder Sam Watson flirted with his record time in qualifications, and again in the round of 16, but “slowed” down to 4.81 in the quarterfinal and advanced. The surprise then came when Hryhorii Ilchyshyn managed to beat Watson in the semifinal with a time of 5.11, while Watson put in one of his slower competition times of 5.17. Jianguo Long just did touch ahead of Kimoral Katibin, 4.81-4.83, meaning Katibin was relegated to the Small Final despite a PR. In that Small Final, Watson again put in a time over five seconds, while Katibin set a new PR of 4.75 to win bronze. Long vs. Ilchyshyn was not the final most were expecting, but it was a heck of a race, with them touching just a tenth of a second apart and, despite climbing sub-5 seconds for the first time ever, Ilchyshyn was unable to get gold and had to settle for the silver.
The Lead climbing was even more bizarre than the Speed. While Mia Krampl finished 1+ holds out of making the final, her bat hang chalk/rest move in the qualifications might have been the most fun visual of the weekend. In the final, Laura Rogora was climbing well, but wound up spending far too much time and energy trying to find a way to statically get across what was a rather clear campusing jump traverse move and ultimately finished fourth. Annie Sanders got to 39+ and won bronze, while both Chaehyun Seo and Erin McNeice got to hold 41. They both happened to fall on that hold and, much to the shock and confusion of the commentary team, fans, and even competitors, both fell at exactly 4:26. Ultimately, this meant a shared gold between McNeice and Seo, Seo’s first gold since 2022 and the first for McNeice.
There were some surprising names that did not make it to the final on the men’s side, but none bigger than Olympic gold medalist Toby Roberts. Once the final did start, the oddities didn’t end. In his first ever final, Neo Suzuki downclimbed a hold to clip the quick draw and wound up getting assistance from the rope. After review, it was determined to be a belayer error and he was allowed to climb again. He made the most of his opportunity to get on the wall again, getting to hold 40 and made an attempt to 41, a full hold further than Alberto Gines Lopez, who finished third in his return to the podium. The Japanese prodigy Sorato Anraku was the last to come out and proceeded to fly up the wall with little trouble, topping out with 1:18 left on the clock.
Lead and Speed come back again next weekend, this time in Bali.
The Stain Sports 