IFSC World Climbing Championships 2011

Written by Nick Clement Wednesday, 27 July 2011

Six members of the GB Bouldering Team travelled to Arco in Italy to compete in the Gaz ParryIFSC World Climbing Championships.  The bouldering event took place between the 15^th and 17^th of July and was attended by over 200 athletes.  The finals were watched by a huge crowd of over 5000 spectators and footage of the competition can be seen at http://www.ifsc.tv/.

In the men’s event Stewart Watson climbed extremely well and was unlucky not toStewart Watson in the semi-final make the final. To qualify for the final Stew needed to do 2 blocs in 7 attempts, unfortunately for Stew he took 11 attempts, which meant he finished in a very credible 9^th place overall.  The men’s event was won by the Dmitry Sharafutdinov, with Adam Ondra 2nd and Rustam Gelmanov 3rd. 

In the women’s competition Shauna Coxsey put in an exceptional performance in the qualification round where she completed all 5 blocs and qualified for the semi-final in first place.  Qualifying in first place means the added pressure of having to come out last in the semi-final.  Unfortunately for Shauna she wasn’t able to replicate her previous performance but still finished in a very respectable 16^th place overall.  Diane Merrick also climbed well and was unlucky Shauna Coxsey in the semi-finalnot to qualify for the semi-final and finished in 23rd place.  The women’s event was won by Anna Stöhr with Sasha DiGiulian 2^nd and Juliane Wurm 3^rd.

The full set of results for the GB Team in the Bouldering event is shown below.

Stewart Watson 9^th

Dave Barrans 27th

Gaz Parry 31st

Jon Partridge 102nd

Shauna Coxsey 16^th

Diane Merrick 23^rd

Dave Barrans, Gaz Parry and Karen Varga also competed in the Lead event and finished, 51^st, 59^th and 61^st respectively.  Gaz also took part in the Speed competition and finished 65^th.GB Bouldering Team with their Team Mascot Ted

For the full set of results see the IFSC Website

The GB Bouldering Team is supported by their clothing Sponsor Five Finger Thing and the BMC.