The 2012 UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup tour which spanned five countries ended on 10 March with Italy’s Angelika Rainer and Russia’s Maxim Tomilov winning their first overall World Cup titles in the Lead discipline.
Russian climbers Kirill Kolchegoshev and Maryam Fillippova were the winners of the Men and Women’s Speed disciplines.
Overall rankings for 2012 and the final results can be found here.
For Rainer, winning the overall World Cup title has been a dream since 2008 when she won one stage of the cup for the first time. It also followed a bad year of competition in 2011 when she almost quit the sport.
“I was thinking about stopping but without having fulfilled my dream this wasn’t really an option for me,” said Rainer, adding that she remained motivated and focused throughout the year once she decided to continue.
“The level of the athletes grows every year,” said Rainer who won three of the five competitions this year. “A lot of girls this year were really strong and I would like to congratulate them for their great performances.”
Tomilov who dominated the Men’s lead this year by winning four of the five competitions had the satisfaction of winning the overall title in front of a hometown crowd in Kirov, Russia.
Tomilov’s brother Alexey who is also his climbing partner came in second place while last year’s world champion Hee Yong Park of South Korea placed third.
The 2012 edition of the World Cup included Champagny-en-Vanoise where the event was held for the first time, as well as live web feeds from the Saas Fee (Switzerland), Busteni (Romania) and Kirov (Russia) competitions.
It also cemented the competition in South Korea where it was held for the second year in a row, a sign of the growing popularity of competitive ice climbing there.
