Levet and Fischhuber win Bouldering World Cup 2005. Oleksy and Danion win final stage in Firminy.

October 2005

The last stage provided all the answers: Kilian Fischhuber and Sandrine Levet are the winners of the Bouldering World Cup 2005, while the fourth and final act in Firminy, France, went to Juliette Danion from France and Tomasz Oleksy from Poland. JÃ©rÃ´me Meyer finished in a disappointing 21st place (also due to a previous finger injury) and lost what could have become his second overall victory, seeing that he held a comfortable 12 point lead over Fischhuber. And so it is the Austrian who wins his first ever World Cup with an impressive score by placing third in France, 4th in Birmingham, 3rd in Moscow and 2nd in Fiera di Primiero. Three podium positions in four competitions, but never victory.

It has to be said that Meyer was not the only athlete to not have enjoyed this final competition. because if meyer can console himself with 2nd place overall in the final ranking, and therefore a podium place in 2005, Christian Core cannot even do that. The Italian had been in provisional third place prior to Firminy, but a banal error cost him dearly netting him first excluded from the Final. Core's error was as banal as unique: half-way through the 6 minutes to solve one of the Qualification problems Christian leaned on the boulder to put his shoe on... and this, according to the rules, cost him one attempt, a "nothing" more which meant he was out of the final... A "superficial" error (definitely done without thinking) by the Bouldering World Champion and three times winner of the World Cup, immediately seized upon by Daniel Dulac who, in a great competition placed second, surging from 6th to 3rd place in the final ranking. And pushing Core into 4th and Mark Croxall, winner of the first stage in Birmingham, from 4th to 7th.

The greatest leap of all in the ranking was made by Olesky, who jumped from provisional 35th to 10th overall; he based his success on the mere 14 points earned in his only other competition, Moscow, where he placed 19th. This short 4 stage World Cup was never won by the same athlete: Croxall in Birmingham, Meyer in Moscow, Pouvreau in Fiera di Primiero and now Oleksy in Firminy. Is this a sign that bouldering is aleatoric and that it is always extremely difficult to come up trumps, or could it be that 4 stages are too few to create a chance result?

These thoughts seem to not affect the female bouldering universe in the slightest, or rather, Sandrine Levet. She placed second in Firminy and, after victory in Birmingham and Moscow and second place in Fiera, now walks away with her startling fifth World Cup victory. 2005, 2004, 2003, 2001, 2000... these results have no equal, even if in all probability they don't make up for the missed out World Champion title, won this year by Olha Shalagina. Just like for Oleksy, the final competition rewarded Juliette Danion with an immense leap: from provisional 35th to 8th. A good result considering she competed in just two events this season, but 4 places behind her 2004 performance. Olga Bibik placed 7th in Firminy and 2nd overall in 2005, ahead of teammate Ioulia Abramtchouk, 3rd overall and 5th in Firminy: Bibik's third 2nd place in three years speaks volumes about the calibre of the European Champion. Emilie Abgrall from France placed 4th, Anna StÃ¶hr from Austria 5th and Leire Aguirre 6th.

So the curtain closes on the Bouldering World Cup 2005. A far too quick World Cup, as mentioned previously. But the 2006 calendar seems to have a significant number of new stages, let's keep our fingers crossed. We'll see. In the meantime, attention now shifts to the Difficulty World Cup, where Flavio Crespi from Italy is firmly in the lead!

Final results women - Bouldering World Cup 2005
1) LEVET Sandrine (FRA) p 360
2)) BIBIK Olga (RUS) 257
3) ABRAMTCHOUK Ioulia (RUS) 228
4) ABGRALL Emilie (FRA) 214
5) STÃHR Anna (AUT) 193
6) AGUIRRE Leire (ESP) 143
7) SON MÃ©lanie (FRA) 135
8) DANION Juliette (FRA) 126
9) ANSADE Maud (FRA) 106
10) VERDIER Emilie (FRA) 100
11) CHERESHNEVA Yana (RUS 95
12) BACHER Barbara (AUT) 74
13) THEROUX Corinne (FRA) 73
14) GIAMMARCO Giulia (ITA) 70

Final results men - Bouldering World Cup 2005
1) FISCHHUBER Kilian (AUT) p 265
2) MEYER JÃ©rÃ´me (FRA) 222
3) DULAC Daniel (FRA) 209
4) CORE Christian (ITA) 185
5) SAMYN Remi (FRA) 171
6) LAURENCE Ludovic (FRA) 165
7) CROXALL Mark (GBR) 163
8) GAIDIOZ LoÃ¯c (FRA) 146
9) POUVREAU GÃ©rome (FRA) 142
10) OLEKSY Tomasz (POL) 114
11) EARL Andrew (GBR) 113
12) PARRY Gareth (GBR) 101
13) MÃLLER Matthias (SUI) 98
14) JULIEN Stephane (FRA) 94
15) KAZBEKOV Serik (UKR) 83
16) RAKHMETOV Salavat (RUS) 79
17) CALEYRON Thomas (FRA) 76

Results women - Firminy
1) DANION Juliette - FRA
2) LEVET Sandrine - FRA
3) STÃHR Anna - AUT
4) CHERESHNEVA Yana - RUS
5) ABRAMCHOUK Yulia - RUS
6) ABGRALL Emilie - FRA
7) BIBIK Olga - RUS
8) JANUEL Caroline - FRA
9) AGUIRRE Leire - ESP
10) SON Melanie - FRA
11) BACHER Barbara - AUT
12) MARTIN Delphine - FRA

Results men - Firminy
1) OLEKSY Tomasz - POL
2) DULAC Daniel - FRA
3) FISCHHUBER Kilian - AUT
4) HUKKATAIVAL Nalle - FIN
5) GAIDIOZ Loic - FRA
6) BADIA Nicolas - FRA
7) LAURENCE Ludovic - FRA
8) EARL Andrew - GBR
9) CALEYRON Thomas - FRA
10) POUVREAU Jerome - FRA
11) SAMYN Remi - FRA
12) PARRY Gareth - GBR