Lead World Cup 2014: Jain Kim and Sachi Amma claim gold in Briançon

Jain Kim from South Korea and Sachi Amma from Japan won the 25th edition of the ex Serre Chevalier Masters (now the Briançon World Cup), that came to a close with the beautiful semi-finals on Saturday evening, pushed forward to by a day in order to avoid Sunday's bad weather.
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Briançon - Jain Kim
Franz Schiassi
The Lead World Cup experienced a rather particular stage in Briançon, France, last weekend. The 25th edition of this historic competition started in the best of all possible ways, with over a hundred athletes in the Qualificationr ounds. Athletes from countries that are usually poorly represented such as Poland, Singapore and Israel were able to attend, providing the event a true international flavour.

Saturday morning's qualifications held no surprises in store. Jakob Schubert (Austria) and Sachi Amma (Japan) took the lead, followed by a “fighting” Adam Ondra who trailed them by a mere "plus". Jain Kim led the women's field, ahead of young Magdalena Röck and Anak Verhoeven (both having improved significantly compared to last year) and a somewhat rejuvenated Maja Vidmar.

After the qualifications, the organisation decided to anticipate the Semi-finals from Sunday morning to Saturday evening, as bad weather had been forecast for the next morning. As a result, the semi-finals were watched by a large crowd that evening. The route setters did a great job by providing two carefully calibrated routes and while the first athletes competed in natural daylight, twilight soon gave way to the beam of a spotlight to create a show which was worthy of any great final.

Numerous French and Italian athletes competed in this round, in particular in the men's field and France's Romain Desgranges climbed superbly to reach a hold that only Sachi Amma managed to beat. Talking of Amma: half-way up his climb the Japanese lost his chalkbag, which fell just next to his belayer. Sachi later told us he thought the click he had heard was something to do with the quickdraw he'd clipped, and only later did he realise what had really happened. At that point, the only thing he could do was blast his way upwards and finish with the determination and concentration that can be expected from a two-times winner Lead World Cup. The women's Semis, in contrast to the men's, proved less buoyant and Jain Kim almost touched the top, ahead of Mina Markovic and Momoka Oda (second and third respectively at the end of the 2013 season), and seemingly slightly under par compared to last year.

Sunday afternoon's bad weather came as forecast. A slight reprieve after the first rain storm had left a sprial of hope, but then clouds built up in the entire Briançon basin, bringing with them gale force winds, thunder and lightening. The final was cancelled and the “coup de grace” came in the form of two lightning strikes, the first which hit the back of the wall and the second race that struck the judges' tent (fortunately empty) that caused a short circuit.

As planned, the results of the semi-final were taken into account to decide on the winners. The awards ceremony took place without an audience and almost by candlelight in the isolation area and wWhile one of the IFSC judges displayed the South Korean flag on a small screen, Jain Kim bravely sang her national anthem, helped by the rest of her team. During the men's awards Sachi Amma got over his initial embarrassment and provided a good interpretation of the Japanese national anthem, helped by his girlfriend and winner of the season's Bouldering World Cup Akiyo Noguchi.

If we're allowed to make a joke, then we'd say that it's a good thing that the two winning athletes represent countries famous for their karaoke. This theory was confirmed by 8th placed Adam Ondra who admitted he'd have had some difficulties singing had he won.

In conclusion, the third stage of Lead World Cup confirmed this season's previous results, in particular in the women's field where Jain Kim is increasingly in the lead. Despite his pulley injury last February, Jakob Schubert is proving to be highly competitive once again, while Czech star Adam Ondra, despite two victories in 2013 and a winter spent training for these competitions, seems as yet to have failed to find

by Franz Schiassi

Lead World Cup- Briançon
Results Semifinals
Men

1 Sachi Amma JPN
2 Romain Desgranges FRA
3 Jakob Schubert AUT
4 Ramón Julian Puigblanque ESP
5 Gautier Supper FRA
6 Sean McColl CAN
7 Manuel Romain FRA
8 Adam Ondra CZE

Women
1 Jain Kim KOR
2 Magdalena Röck AUT
3 Anak Verhoeven BEL
4 Maja Vidmar SLO
5 Momoka Oda JPN
6 Mina Markovic SLO
7 Akiyo Noguchi JPN
8 Katharina Posch AUT




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