News

17 Jan 2010

Markus Bendler won and only him hit the top

At the end Markus Bendler succeeded in climbing the very difficult hill, facing all the obstacles that anybody before him manage to overcome. The Austrian, who won the 2009 Ice Master edition and dominated the 1st stage of the World Cup in Kirov ( Russia ), prevailed the lead competition, succeeding in ending the whole and very technical route ( it took 9 min and 49 sec. ) reaching 35 meters in height under the incredulous sight of the public.

The route was very demanding and full of obstacles. Besides the length, which challenged the muscles and the tendons of the athletes, one in particular was the stretch which challenged more the climbers: the “lumps of sugar”, that is the two cylindrical icy blocks hanged by chains, through which the climbers had to pass horizontally from one side to the others.

This stretch was fatal for many climbers but not for Markus Bendler. The Korean Park Hee Yong stopped few meters from the top, placing second and the Swiss Patrick Aufdenblatter third.

Behind them ( with a very similar score: they slipped on the lumps of sugar ) placed Maxim Tomilov ( Russia ), the expert Yevgen Kryvosheytsev ( Ukraine ), the Russian Stanislav Lobzov and Sergey Tarasov and at the 8th place Valentyn Sypavin ( Ukraine ).

Among women Chloe Graftiaux won. All the lead competitors were surprised by her who reached the top very easy ( it took 10’’ and 30 cent. ) and it took 20 sec less than the Russian Ludmilla Badalyan.

Further behind placed the French Stephanie Maureau who made a brilliant competition going through valuable technical stretch and at the end she gave up few meters from the top. This year the circuit was very hard with its 27 meters in height. The route, drown by Attilio Munari, had different hard and demanding stretches. The selection among climbers was string: among women only 2 athletes reached the blu grip, which was the symbol of the end of the competition.

Other female athletes, beginning from the French Maureau and passing through the 4th place with the Czech Lucie Hrozova and through the 5th with the Korean Wha Leong Woon, almost reached the top stopping few meters before the arrival.

At the 6th position placed the Russian Anna Gallyamova, at the 7th the young Swiss Felicitas Feller ( Class ’90 ) and the Bulgarian Radka Petkova placed third in the speed competition on Saturday.

It’s a very “squeezed” rank which confirms the high technical level of these girls.