Ramón Julian Puigblanque and Johanna Ernst victorious in Valence

Eight attempts were needed, but in the end the double World Champion Ramón Julian Puigblanque managed to impose himself and stop Jakob Schubert's record-breaking winning run. In fact, after seven consecutive victories the Austrian had to make do with 5th place in Valence tonight, behind the amazing Canadian Sean McColl who took silved and proved that he's a force to be reckoned with not just in boulder competitions, and Sachi Amma from Japan who took bronze. All the remaining athletes were stopped by the same hold: Thomas Tauporn from Germany 4th, the above mentioned Schubert 5th, and then the French trio comprised of Manuel Romain, Gauthier Supper and Romain Desgranges, 6th to 8th respectively.

In the women's competition Johanna Ernst doubled her takings after winning in the States a fortnight ago and she did this by turning the Semifinal results upside down, fighting her way to victory all the way from provisional 7th. The final substantially remixed the cards for all athletes, as provisional 8th Yana Chereshneva gained 5 places to win bronze, while silver went to young Austrian Katarina Posch. Angela Eiter returns from France with a solid 4th place while Mina Markovic and Maja Vidmar will no doubt travel to Slovenia somewhat disappointed: both had topped out in the Semis, but then slipped to 5th and 6th respectively. The same holds true for Jain Kim from Korea who fared even worse and finished 8th, while the 4th Austrian in the final, Magdalena Röck, suffered a similar fate and finished 7th.

The penultimate stage of the Lead World Cup 2011 will be held in Kranj in Slovenia on 19-20 November.

Valence, Francia 28-29/10/2011
Men
1 Ramón Julian Puigblanque 1981 ESP -39
2 Sean McColl 1987 CAN -38
3 Sachi Amma 1989 JPN -32
4 Thomas Tauporn 1991 GER 29
5 Jakob Schubert 1990 AUT 29 
6 Manuel Romain 1988 FRA -29
7 Gauthier Supper 1990 FRA -29
8 Romain Desgranges 1982 FRA -29

Women
1 Johanna Ernst 1992 AUT -33
2 Katharina Posch 1994 AUT -31
3 Yana Chereshneva 1989 RUS -17
4 Angela Eiter 1986 AUT 16 
5 Mina Markovic 1987 SLO -14
6 Maja Vidmar 1985 SLO -14
7 Magdalena Röck 1994 AUT -14
8 Jain Kim 1988 KOR 13 

Ranking 2011 after 8 competitions
Men
1 Schubert Jakob AUT 700
2 Julian Puigblanque Ramón ESP 461
3 Amma Sachi JPN 415
4 Romain Manuel FRA 414
5 Desgranges Romain FRA 313
6 Supper Gauthier FRA 242
7 Min Hyunbin KOR 237
8 Lechner Mario AUT 234
9 Tauporn Thomas GER 203
10 Verhoeven Jorg NED 141

Women
1 Markovic Mina SLO 590
2 Kim Jain KOR 460
3 Vidmar Maja SLO 406
4 Posch Katharina AUT 277
5 Schranz Christine AUT 276
6 Durif Charlotte FRA 274
7 Eiter Angela AUT 271
8 ODA Momoka JPN 267
9 Ciavaldini Caroline FRA 252
10 Chereshneva Yana RUS 231