IX Climbing World Championship Aviles: full results

Angela Eiter and Ramón Julian Puigblanque won the World Championship Lead 2007 in Aviles. The Bouldering competition was won by Dmitry Sharafutdinov and Anna Stöhr, while the Speed event was won by Qixin Zhong and Tatiana Ruyga (RUS). The Combined title (Lead, Boulder and Speed) was won by Jenny Lavarda and Dmitry Sharafutdinov.
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Angela Eiter
Giulio Malfer
On 22/09/2007 Angela Eiter (AUT) and Ramón Julian Puigblanque (ESP) won the World Championship Lead ahead of Muriel Sarkany (BEL) and Patxi Usobiaga (ESP). Bronze went to Maja Vidmar (SLO) and Cédric Lachat (SUI).

On 23/09/2007 the Bouldering World Championship title went to Dmitry Sharafutdinov (RUS) and Anna Stöhr (AUT), while Akiyo Noguchi (JAP) and Martin Stranik (CZE) placed second, and Olga Bibik (RUS) and Cédric Lachat (SUI) placed third.

On 21/09/2007 the Speed event was won by Qixin Zhong (CHN) and Tatiana Ruyga (RUS). The Combined title (Lead, Boulder and Speed) was won by Jenny Lavarda (ITA) and Dmitry Sharafutdinov (RUS).


Lead World Championship
The World Championship Lead was won on Saturday by Angela Eiter from Austria and Ramón Julian Puigblanque from Spain. Climbing in front of a packed Aviles stadium Eiter, Muriel Sarkany from Belgium and Maja Vidmar from Slovenia all successfully fought their way to the top in n the women's final. However, since Vidmar had failed to top out in one of the qualification routes a few days earlier the ensuing Superfinal was to be decided between the defending Champion and Muriel Sarkany only. On the slightly modified men's route...

Which meant that the time had come for the men to compete: first out was 16 year old local Eric Lopez Mateos who, much to the crowd's delight, climbed high to the long final traverse before falling. Next out Magnus Midtboe from Norway fell slightly lower, as did Cédric Lachat due to a spinning hold which meant that he could re-attempt the route after two turns. Flavio Crespi, one of the favourites for the title, climbed securely to half-way through the traverse but was stumped by a hard cross-through move. The applause transformed into an ovation when the next climber appeared: Ramón Julian Puigblanque. Ramonet climbed quickly, seemingly weightless, sending the crowd wild as he climbed past Crespi's highpoint. But just when the top seemed within his grasp he fell... and the (astounding) cheers made the stadium tremble.

Lachat's second performance was equally astounding: he climbed higher than Crespi and got close to Puigblanque's hold but then ran out of steam. Placed provisional second, the Swissman watched as Tomás Mrázek came out next. Those who know the defending champion know that he can be his best friend or worst enemy. But Mrazek climbed swiftly in his usual determined style and for a second it seemed as if he would equal Puigblanque... but then he fell just exactly where Lachat had done. The top continued to resist all attempts, even by that of the current World Cup leader Jorg Verhoeven, who "photocopied" Mrázek and Lachat's climb.

Only Patxi Usobiaga reamined to solve the problem right up to the top. He climbed without problems to half-way through the traverse, stopped to encite the crowd, then departed in Puigblanque's footsteps. He reached the highpoint of Mrazek, Lachat and Verhoeven, climbed past it, then... fell. Puigblanque was the news World Champion Lead (the title he missed two years ago in Munich!). Silver went to Usobiaga, creating a historic double Spanish one-two. Bronze went to Lachat, Mrázek and Verhoeven.

All that was left was the grand finale, the duel between Eiter and Sarkany. The Belgian's practically endless list of achievements is missing just one title: the World Championship. But when it’s written in the stars and, above all, where there's Angela Eiter there is little room for anyone else... For the second time running Eiter won the Lead Championship, climbing high in the superfinal, forging an immense gap between herself and Sarkany. For the record, Angela produced an extraordinary climb and finished roughly where Magnus Midtboe and Eric Lopez Mateos had placed 7th and 8th! She completely deserved the crowd's standing ovation and her climb was without a doubt the best and most incredible ascent of the entire Aviles evening!

Bouldering World Championship
Yesterday Anna Stöhr from Austria produced the climb of her life to win her first ever World Championship title. The young Austrian proved unbeatable, placing provisional sixth in the Semifinals and the sending all four final problems straight off. In doing so she left no room whatsoever to other title contenders: Akiyo Noguchi from Japan resolved all problems second go and consequently had to "make do" with silver, while Olga Bibik took bronze.

Dmitry Sharafutdinov proved unbeatable too, but his win was agonised as the duel between him and young Martin Stranik from the Czech Republic intensified. In the end the two were separated by just one attempt, while an incredible Cédric Lachat placed third with 3 tops, taking home his second bronze after the Lead and silver in the Combined ranking. Stephane Julien placed fourth with 2 tips and 4 attempts, ahead of Sang-Won Son and his teammate Daniel Dulac who, incredibly, failed to send a single problem in the final after having dominated the Qualifiers and semifinal.

What should one do in these cases? The "boulderer with a hat" gave all a massive show, just missing (with his hallmark hat on ) the top of the final unsolved problem and finishing the competition in style. Hat's off to him and to all athletes in this World Championship!

IFSC Climbing World Championship - Aviles (ESP)
Lead Men
1 Ramón Julian Puigblanque ESP
2 Patxi Usobiaga Lakunza ESP
3 Cédric Lachat SUI
3 Tomás Mrázek CZE
3 Jorg Verhoeven NED
6 Flavio Crespi ITA
7 Eric Lopez Mateos ESP
8 Magnus Midtboe NOR

Lead women
1 Angela Eiter AUT
2 Muriel Sarkany BEL
3 Maja Vidmar SLO
4 Yuka Kobayashi JPN
5 Irati AndaVillanueva ESP
6 Katharina Saurwein AUT
7 Natalija Gros SLO
8 Ja-In Kim KOR

Boulder Men
1 Dmitry Sharafutdinov RUS
2 Martin Stranik CZE
3 Cédric Lachat SUI
4 Stephane Julien FRA
5 Sang-Won Son KOR
6 Daniel Dulac FRA

Boulder Women
1 Anna Stöhr AUT
2 Akiyo Noguchi JPN
3 Olga Bibik RUS
4 Yulia Abramchuk RUS
5 Juliette Danion FRA
6 Svitlana Tuzhylina UKR

Speed Men
1 Qixin Zhong CHN
2 Manuel Escobar VEN
3 Sergey Sinitsyn RUS
4 Evgeny Vaytsekhovsky RUS
5 Lucas Preti ITA
6 Alexander Kosterin RUS
7 Maksym Styenkovyy UKR
8 Libor Hroza CZE

Speed Women
1 Tatiana Ruyga RUS
2 Edyta Ropek POL
3 Valentina Yurina RUS
4 Lai-Sho Cheng HKG
5 Chun-Hua Li CHN
6 Svitlana Tuzhylina UKR
7 Jenny Lavarda ITA
8 Lucelia Blanco VEN

World Championship Aviles 2007
Complete results



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