French and Japanese climbers dominate during Bouldering qualification

 The World University Sport Climbing Championship moved to the spectacular Eurovea Gallery for Thursday’s qualification round of Sport Climbing’s Bouldering discipline.  45 women and 57 men fought for the six spots in Friday’s final.

 Spectators lined the climbing wall in Bratislava, Slovakia as the world’s best university climbers sought qualification for the Bouldering discipline at the FISU World University Sport Climbing Championship © Roman Benicky/SAUS

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA – Women’s qualification was dominated by French climbers at the FISU World University Sport Climbing Championship. The winner was Maëlys Agrapart followed by Julia Chanourdie – winner of yesterday’s Lead qualification – and Japanese Mei Kotake. Next qualified climbers were Japanese Serika Okawachi, French Fanny Gibert, and Megan Lynch from the USA.

Second place qualifer Julia Chanourdie during her qualification round in Bratislava. The French climber followed her countrymate Maëlys Agrapart with a second place finish in the qualification round. © Roman Benicky/SAUS 

The climbers had to manage five different runs; the results were scored and counted together. None of the girls managed to conquer the second run – the closest to the top was Japanese Kotake.

“The crucial thing was to keep your hands dry. It was very hard today because of hot weather,” said Japanese Kotake. “I used a liquid powder and that helped me a lot. After yesterday qualification I felt good. This discipline is more or less about persistence and thinking. Now I’m really tired and I’m looking forward to a good meal.”

French athletes were tired as well after the competition, but satisfied. “It was demanding today, fortunately a refreshing wind blew a bit,” said the qualification winnter Agrapart who lives and trains in Paris. “It was a very interesting wall. Not so hard but complicated.I prefer to climb the rocks in Italy but normally I train six times a week on the climbing wall.”

“I like that each of the five runs were different,” added Julia Chanourdie. “The complexity was changing and that made it interesting. I’m happy that we’re doing well. In our team there is really friendly atmosphere.”

 Maëlys Agrapart of France led all women qualifers in Sport Climbing’s Bouldering discipline, with the finals coming on the next day © Roman Benicky/SAUS

‘We have the heart of Samurai’, says Japan’s Fujiwaki after Men’s Boulder Qualification

The first climber in men’s category Kaito Watanabe managed to conquer all five runs to the top. He was quite sure with his final spot then. “I think that first and third run wasn’t so problematic, but the second and fourth wasn’t easy at all,” said Watanabe, a student in Tokyo. “If I want to succeed in the finals, I need to get all five tops. We have been in isolation for a long time and the weather was so hot, it was difficult to concentrate.”

The best performance was shown by his compatriot and friend Yuji Fujiwaki, second one from yesterday’s Lead. “It was easy. I trust myself and it is clear that in the final, they will prepare more difficult runs. There will be six specialists on bouldering so it will be really challenging. Why are Japanese so good climbers? Because we have the heart of Samurai,” said Fujiwaki who studies at Osaka University.

On the second place we saw Elias Weiler from Austria. “It is my first time here in Bratislava and I like it very much. It is not far, we came here by car. I was lucky that my hands weren’t sweaty so much. For me, the hardest runs were the fourth and fifth,” added Weiler.

Three Slovaks performed in bouldering as well – Robert Luby, Andrej Capko a Jakub Jiří Švub. The best one was Luby, who ended on 21^st place.

On Friday 22 June the competition continues with qualification and final of Speed in K2 climbing centre and from 19.00, the bouldering final is scheduled.

 World University CHampionship competitors practicing the day before the first competition day, which took place in the Lead discipline of Sport Climbing

 FOR MORE INFORMATION:

About the event

Media and Marketing

RESULTS:

Men’s Results 

Women’s Results 

LIVE STREAMS AND REPLAYS:

Bouldering Final at 17:00 CET Friday

Speed Final at 13:00 CET Friday