The first WC competition in difficulty (lead) as well as the second competition in speed climbing took place in Bulgarian Veliko Tarnovo with around 100 participating climbers.

The qualifiers and the semifinals for difficulty were held on Saturday. Evgueni Ovtchinikov (RUS) did not get through the qualifiers finishing 37th and, unexpectedly, Alexandr Chabot (FRA) failed on his way through the semifinals finishing 29th. In the end, the finals were without a single French competitor, a situation which has not happened for a long time (if ever!).

Sunday saw the finals in both, the difficulty and the speed climbing. The route consisted of many bouldering moves and three competitors failed on the dyno section including, unfortunately, Tomas Mrazek whose foot slipped off the hold. The winner was Flavio Crespi who is said to have 'fine-tuned' his form for the WC by slimming down to 54 kg.

Women finals choice /setup was a bit unfortunate with three competitors finishing in the same place, the semifinals results had to be used to decide their final places. We also had our hopes in the speed competition with Eliška Karešová and Libor Hroza participating in the afternoon speed competition. They both did very well showing improvements in technique, needed for such competitions, gained by training. Libor finished 11-th and Eliska qualified for the finals.


Difficulty men

1. Crespi Flavio (ITA)
2. Verhoeven  Jorg (NED)
3. Lachat Cedric (SUI)
9. Mrázek Tomáš (CZE) – ocún, rock pillars
16.Repčík Juraj (SVK) - Anatomic

Difficulty women

1. Eiter Angela (AUT)
2. Ciavaldini Caroline (FRA)
  Gros Natalija (SLO)

Speed men

1. Vaitsekhovski Evgeny (RUS)
2. Pechenkhonov Alexandre (RUS)
3. Sinitsyne Serguei (RUS)
11. Hroza Libor (CZE)-Saltic, Singing rock, Schwarzkopf

Speed women

1. Saoulevitch Anna (RUS)
2. Yurina Valentina (RUS)
3. Rouiga Tatiana (RUS)
8. Karešová Eliška (CZE) – Bufo, Filinger, Haco


Competition wall - climber A.Eiter (AUT) the winner


Caroline Ciavaldini - 2. place

More photos at www.tomasmrazek.cz