Speed World Cup, historic victory for Leonardo Gontero and Gaydamakina

The next men’s quarterfinals hit like a bombshell. Libor Hroza won the duel against Jedrzej Komosinski in 6” 69 vs 6” 84. Next out Leonardo Gontero and Bassa Mawem battled, and incredibly both stopped the clock at 6” 82. A quite unbelievable tie! To split the two another battle was needed, and while Gontero sprinted upwards Mawem slipped behind and then fell, meaning that Gontero qualified as the second semi-finalist.

Russia’s Stanislav Kokorin sped up in 6” 77 while teammate Sergey Abdrakhmanov checked in with a “slow” time of 7” 90. The final dual went in favour of Sergei Sinitcyn who eliminated, in 6” 82, Danylo Boldyrev from the Ukraine (9” 49).

In the Russian Semifinal Alina Gaydamakina got the better of Kseniya Polekhina (9” 11 vs 9”34, while Yuliya Levochkina took her time – 9”77 – in the other head-to-head as Natalia Titova fell. Titova then made up for her mistake to win bronze by beating – only just – Kseniya Polekhina (8”96 vs 8”99). In the great final Alina Gaydamakina sprinted towards gold in 9”04, leaving silver for Yuliya Levochkina (9”70).

The time had now come for the men’s Semifinal and all eyes were, understandably, on Gontero. The Italian faced one of the greatest speed climbers, Libor Hroza, but he raced fearlessly to the top in 6”65 while Hroza fell. The Italian had qualified for the final! In the other duel, Sergei Sinitcyn beat his Russian teammate Stanislav Kokorin in 6”65 and the battle for third and fourth place was subsequently won by Libor Hroza in an astounding time of 6”50.

All that remained now was Gontero and Sinitcyn in the final. This was the first time that the Italian had the chance of winning the Rock Master Speed and a stage of the Speed World Cup, but there was no time to sit back and think because they we’re off, faster than lighting and, by a hair’s breadth, Gontero beat the Russian to the top! But… something had gone wrong with the timer and it needed to be carried out again! This technical glitch could have got the better of the most expert athletes, but Gontero gave it no second thoughts and sprinted up in 6”60 to beat Sinitcyn once again who stopped his run in 6”74. So Leonardo Gontero, from close to Turin and trained by Donato Lella, became the first Italian to win the Rock Master Speed and a stage of the Speed World Cup. This is beautiful, historic moment, perhaps the best until now of this Rock Master Festival, applauded by a massive crowd!

Results Men
1 Gontero Leonardo 1993 ITA
2 Sinitcyn Sergei 1983 RUS
3 Hroza Libor 1987 CZE
4 Kokorin Stanislav 1990 RUS
5 Komosinski Jedrzej 1988 POL
6 Abdrakhmanov Sergey 1990 RUS
7 Boldyrev Danylo 1992 UKR
8 Mawem Bassa 1984 FRA
9 Swirk Lukasz 1985 POL
10 Shevchenko Arseniy 1990 RUS
11 Le Couster Yoann 1991 FRA
12 Vaitcekhovsk. Evgenii 1986 RUS
13 Quinteros Andres 1990 ECU
14 Yurko Oleksiy 1991 UKR
15 Escobar Manuel 1984 VEN
16 Estevez Isaac 1992 ECU

Results Women
1 Gaydamakina Alina 1990 RUS
2 Levochkina Yuliya 1990 RUS
3 Titova Natalia 1978 RUS
4 Polekhina Kseniya 1990 RUS
5 Prokopiuk Monika 1987 POL
6 Krasavina Maria 1990 RUS
7 Pichler Stefanie 1992 AUT
8 Heitz Margot 1992 FRA
9 Ustimenko Mariya 1994 UKR
10 Rojas Andrea 1995 ECU
11 Correa Sofia 1994 ECU
12 Ropek Edyta 1979 POL
13 Savisko Anastasiya 1990 UKR
14 Buczek Klaudia 1991 POL
15 Boyko Mariya 1990 UKR
16 Korcova Lucia 1985 SVK
17 Korcova Simona 1985 SVK

WWW.ROCKMASTERFESTIVAL.COM