Seven years after the IFSC Youth World Championships in Edinburgh, top sport climbing athletes return to the capital city of Scotland for IFSC World Cup Edinburgh, the fifth Lead and Speed event of 2017.
The event will take place on September 23-24 alongside the second Paraclimbing Cup of the season. Edinburgh has consistently hosted top-notch events for rising youth stars since 2009. Young athletes from all over the world competed in Edinburgh in 2010 at the annual IFSC Youth World Championships. Now, many of those same athletes return to Scotland for IFSC World Cup Edinburgh. Altogether, 131 Lead and Speed athletes and 63 paraclimbing athletes have registered to compete at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena this weekend.
Lead rivalries continue
Veteran athlete Jakob Schubert of Austria was unstoppable in his first IFSC Lead World Cup of the season last month, besting a strong field in Arco that included Alexander Megos, Adam Ondra, and season leader Romain Desgranges of France. Desgranges is the only man so far to win two of these events in 2017. 2010 finalists Marcello Bombardi, David Firnenburg, Stefano Ghisolfi, Masahiro Higuchi, Domen Skofic and Loic Timmermans all return to the world stage in Edinburgh with seven more years of experience at the highest level. Also follow Great Britain’s own William Bosi and James Pope, two standouts at IFSC Youth World Championships Innsbruck.
For the women, the rivalry between Slovenian Janja Garnbret, Jain Kim of Korea and Anak Verhoeven of Belgium continues this weekend. Kim ended Garnbret’s streak of victories at three in Arco, adding a 26th IFSC Lead World Cup victory to her scorecard. Verhoeven joins 2010 finalists Julia Chanourdie, Katherine Choong, Dinara Fakhritdinova and Magdalena Rock in returning to Edinburgh. From Great Britain, keep an eye on Arco finalist Molly Thompson-Smith and 17-year-old Hannah Slaney. Ashima Shiraishi, crowned Lead youth champion for the third time at Innsbruck, is also on the start list.
Speed stars duel for Gold
Four athletes have guarded the top of IFSC Speed World Cup podiums so far: Reza Alipoushenazandifar and Vladislav Deulin for the men, and Anouck Jaubert and Iuliia Kaplina for the women. Jaubert gained ground in the Speed rankings with a victory in Arco, and frontrunner Kaplina leads a strong Russian team that has won no less than 15 medals this season. Her teammate Mariia Krasavina claimed three of them. Klaudia Buczek of Poland, youth champion in 2010, will aim for another gold medal in Edinburgh. Like Kaplina, Deulin has yet to miss a podium in 2017, and the Russian speedster returned to the top of the rankings in Arco. His teammate Stanislav Kokorin will also be in Edinburgh, as well as 2010 finalists Marcin Dzienski and Leonardo Gontero. Also keep an eye on Gontero’s Italian compatriot Ludovico Fossali, who registered the fastest time in Arco (5.81 seconds). Tune-in on September 24 to watch the action LIVE: www.ifsc-climbing.org
The schedule, starters and trailer can be found on the Edinburgh event page, and chat with us on Twitter during the show by adding #IFSCwc #eicawc17 to your tweets.
Paraclimbing Cup
After inspiring fans of IFSC World Championships Paris last year with unparalleled perseverance, the best paraclimbing athletes in the world have continued to impress this year. The second Paraclimbing Cup of 2017 will also take place in Edinburgh this weekend. Leg amputee Urko Carmona Barandiaran of Spain rebounded after an early fall in Paris kept him out of finals, topping every problem at the first Paraclimbing Cup of the season in Briancon. Paris medallists Mathieu Besnard, Nils Helsper and Melinda Vigh won gold medals in Briancon in the RP categories (limited range, power or stability), as well as visually impaired athletes Francisco Javier Aguilar Amoedo and Roxane Heili, forearm amputee Kevin Bartke and Serge Laurencin in RP2. Also track the climbing of world champion Elodie Orbaen in RP3.
Provisional Programme (GMT + 1)
Saturday, September 23
09:00-15:00 Lead Qualifications
16:00-18:00 Speed Qualifications
Sunday, September 24
09:30-12:00 Lead Semi-Finals (LIVE) 12:30-13:30
Speed Finals (LIVE)
15:30-17:30 Lead Finals (LIVE)
17:30-18:30 Award Ceremony (LIVE)
Hosts to the IFSC World Cup and Paraclimbing Cup, which will take place from 23-24 September at Edinburgh’s International Climbing Arena at Ratho, are reporting huge demand for tickets.
Tickets for Sunday’s finals and weekend tickets are now sold out but there are still a limited number of tickets for Saturday’s qualifications rounds. Spectators are encouraged to buy the remaining tickets now to see some of the best climbers and paraclimbers in the world compete.
Over the weekend over 77 climbers are already registered to compete across all categories – Lead and Speed, with climbers from Austria, Italy and Slovenia still to enter their teams; all strong nations in both categories. In the Paraclimbing Cup, registration is now closed with 63 climbers taking part in one of 9 climbing categories. Thirteen climbers are from the UK including Scotsman, Keith Lynch.
Sport climbing will make its debut at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 after being approved by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as part of a package of five sports, all selected for their key focus on youth, which is at the heart of the Games’ vision for Tokyo 2020.
Lindsay Renwick, Head of Customer Operations at Edinburgh Leisure said: “We’re delighted with response to ticket sales for the Climbing World Cup at Ratho, where you’ll be able to witness the world’s best climbers and paraclimbers.
There’s obviously some keen interest ahead of sport climbing debuting at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 so if you don’t want to miss out on the action, we encourage you to snap up the last tickets for Saturday’s qualifiers.”
Stuart Turner, Head of EventScotland, said: “We’re delighted tickets have sold out for Sunday for this month’s IFSC World Cup and Paraclimbing World Cup with only a limited number left for Saturday’s session. This is an exciting time for the sport and Ratho is the perfect stage for people to see climbing first-hand ahead of its debut at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
“The combination of both world-class facilities and climbers promises an adrenaline packed weekend of action so I recommend you get in now if you want to secure one of the final tickets still available.”
Organised by EICA:Ratho, in conjunction with the British Mountaineering Council, and with support from Edinburgh Leisure, City of Edinburgh Council and EventScotland, part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate, this is the first time the IFSC World Cup has been held in Edinburgh since 2003 and the first time a Paraclimbing Cup has been held in Scotland.
