Vail, Colorado, has welcomed the world’s leading Bouldering athletes to the IFSC World Cup stage for a decade now. This year, the renowned mountain town in the United States welcomes a new cast of rising stars and veteran sport climbers for its tenth event.
Youth World Champions
Young American athletes excelled at the IFSC Youth World Championships in Guangzhou last year, and a number of them will be competing at IFSC World Cup Vail. Leading the way is Margo Hayes, who was unstoppable at Guangzhou, topping the podium in Bouldering, Lead and the Combined. She will look to improve on her recent 37th place finishes at IFSC World Cups Meiringen and Hachioji-Tokyo. Also on the mats in Vail will be Brooke Raboutou, who finished on three podiums as well at Guangzhou. They will try to catch Slovenian star Janja Garnbert, who topped every problem at Hachioji-Tokyo for Gold and is 2nd in the women’s Bouldering rankings.
For the men, former youth world champion Kai Lightner returns to Vail looking stronger than ever, with 2 second-place finishes at Guangzhou and more strong climbing on the world stage. He will climb alongside American teammates Nathaniel Coleman, the legendary Daniel Woods and Sean Bailey, who excelled on the ropes in 2016 and just missed the podium at IFSC World Cup Villars. Former youth world champion Yoshiyuki Ogata of Japan just missed winning a medal last year as well, finishing fourth at Vail. He has gained much experience by climbing in every IFSC event this year and should be one to watch.
Japan
Ogata’s teammates have been dominating this year. Keita Watabe finished in the top 4 at every event so far and leads the men’s Bouldering rankings. Not far behind him are reigning season champion Tomoa Narasaki, Rei Sugimoto and Kokoro Fujii, who claimed the title last year at Vail and added another Gold at Meiringen to start the season. They will have to contest with Aleksei Rubtsov of Russia, winner at Hachioji-Tokyo, and Chongqing victor Jongwon Chon of Korea, who have both climbed superbly this year.
For the women, reigning season champion Shauna Coxsey is the only athlete with 2 victories in 2017. She will try to unseat Megan Mascarenas, who claimed the title last year at Vail in front of her home crowd but has yet to make the finals cut this year. Akiyo Noguchi and Miho Nonaka of Japan outperformed them both on their home turf at Hachioji-Tokyo and will hope to wear the medals again this time around. Bouldering legend Alex Puccio, finalist at Vail in 2016, is back on the starting list and should impress again.
The event will be live on IFSC website and a live feed can be watched on SportsCrunch website as well.
IFSC WORLD CUP (B) VAIL (USA)
Provisional Programme (GMT -6)
Friday, June 09
09:00 Men Bouldering Qualification
15:00 Women Bouldering Qualification
Saturday, June 10 (LIVE)
10:00 Men and Women Bouldering Semi-Finals
16:30 Men and Women Bouldering Finals
after Awarding Ceremony