The first full day competition at the UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour in Cheongsong, Korea saw a major upset when last year’s world champion Maxim Tomilov (Men’s Lead) fell early and unable to qualify for the finals on Sunday.
Tomilov’s brother and climbing partner Alexey Tomilov, however, fared much better and led the group by day’s end.
It was also another major disappointment for Austria’s Markus Bendler, who gave a sub-par performance in the qualifying round and failed to impress in the semi-final.
Bendler was philosophical about his loss in the first stage of the 2013 UIAA Ice Climbing World Tour and said that although he was bit tired, he didn’t feel weaker than in previous years, he just though everyone else had improved much more. In the women’s group (Lead), local favourite Woon Seon Shin of Korea led Maria Tolokonina, and Svetlana Sokolova of Russia.
Last year’s world champion Angelika Rainer (4th) of Italy is still in the hunt for top prize as are Anna Gallyamova (5th) and Lucie Hrozova (7th).
Full results can be found here:
Men’s: https://www.theuiaa.org/upload_area/files/1/Men-Lead-Semifinal-Korea-2013.pdf
Women’s: https://www.theuiaa.org/upload_area/files/1/Women-Lead-Semifinal-Korea-2013.pdf
Qualificaiton for Speed and the finals for both Lead and Speed take place on Sunday.
There are two types of competition.
In Speed, competitors climb up an artificial ice wall in the fastest time while in the Lead discipline athletes are judged on their ability to climb a difficult route in the best time.
There are two types of winners; those who win each phase of the competition and overall winners based on the total points accumulated after events in Korea, Switzerland, Italy, Romania and Russia where the tour concludes on 10 March 2013.
About the UIAA
The UIAA was founded in 1932 and has 80 member associations in 50 countries representing about 1.3 million people. The organization’s mission is to promote the growth and protection of mountaineering and climbing worldwide, advance safe and ethical mountain practices and promote responsible access, culture and environmental protection.
The organization operates through the work of its commissions which make recommendations, set policy and advocate on behalf of the mountaineering community. The UIAA is recognized by the International Olympic Committee for mountaineering and natural surface climbing.
