Bolzano/Corvara, 7 February 2016 – The country with the largest geographic extension of the world put its mark on the Ice Climbing Junior World Championships in the age groups U22, U19 and U16. Four titles out of six in difficulty climbing and all of the six gold medals in speed climbing went to Russia.
Sunday afternoon, during the award ceremony at the ice tower in Corvara, the national anthems were played 12 times. Ten times the played anthem was the Russian one, in honour of the new world champions Ilia Kurochkin (U16, Lead men), Iuliia Filateva (U16, Lead women), Valeriia Bogdan (U19, Lead women), Alena Kochebaeva (U22, Lead women), Nikita Glazyrin (U16, Speed men), Elizaveta Malygina (U16, Speed women), Vadim Malshchukov (U19, Speed men), Valeriia Bogdan (U19, Speed women), Vladimir Kartashev (U22, Speed men), and Ekaterina Koshcheeva (U22, Speed women).
The domination of the Russian ice climbers was broken only twice, by two Swiss athletes. Lukas Götz became world champion of the under 19 years old in the discipline Lead, Kevin Huser in the same discipline in the category under 22. This was the only race in which no Russian climbed onto the podium.
South Tyroleans achieve three 4 placements
Three times the local ice climbers missed a medal by a whisker. The 15-year-old Christof Pfitscher from Corvara (U16) achieved rank 4 in both disciplines, and David Oberprantacher (U19/Val Passiria) finished 4 in lead.
“The Junior World Championships were the culmination of two very intensive weeks. We saw very exciting races. It’s a pity that our local athletes missed the podium. However, I wish to congratulate all athletes for their performances and to thank all volunteers, especially the guys of our association Eisturm Rabenstein for their relentless effort during the last weeks. Together we managed to set up two international top events, the World Cup and the Junior World Champs”, concluded Chair of the Organising Committee Reinhard Graf.
UIAA_World_Youth_Cahmpionships_Rabenstein_LEAD_07_02_2016 UIAA_World_Youth_Cahmpionships_Rabenstein_SPEED_07_02_2016.pdf UIAA_World_Youth_Cahmpionships_Rabenstein_TEAM_Ranking_07_02_2016.pdf