Innsbruck is from the 6. to 16. September Venue of the world championships in sport climbing. 700 athletes will compete in the climbing center Innsbruck and in the Olympiaworld for the medals in the disciplines of lead, bouldering, speed and Olympic combined format. Switzerland has selected nine athletes for the World Cup. For Austria altogether 28 athletes compete.
Already 1993 was Innsbruck (AUT) venue of the World Sport Climbing Championship. It was the second in history and Swiss Susi Good won gold in lead climbing, the only discipline at that time. Now the World Cup returns to the Tyrolean capital. The final of the Olympic Combination, which will be used for the first time at this year's World Cup, is expected with great excitement. The number of athletes starting in all disciplines has continued to rise since the last World Cup 2016. With a duration of ten days, the WM 2018 is the longest of all times. At the same time, the title fights take place in paraclimbing at the same location.
Switzerland is represented with 5 ladies and 4 men
The nine-strong Swiss national team travels to Innsbruck with the reigning Boulder World Champion Petra Klingler. Klingler, who deliberately graduated from college this year and has therefore run fewer World Cups, is looking forward to the upcoming competitions, but explains that the conditions are very different compared to the World Cup in Paris two years ago: "With regard to Tokyo 2020 The combination ranking clearly in the focus and the training is not aligned accordingly to a single discipline. Since I have climbed less than usual this season, my main concern in Innsbruck is to see where I stand in comparison to the competition and what I still have to work on. Of course I'll show full commitment in the fight for the medals, but defending the title will be hard work. "In addition to Klingler, Anne-Sophie Koller and Andrea Kümin also contest all three disciplines and the combination. Michelle Hulliger and Katherine Choong focus on lead climbing.
In particular, Sascha Lehmann is confident of a place in the lead final for the Swiss men. After a knee injury and a prolonged competition break, the Bernese made a well-received comeback around three months ago. In the Lead World Cup, he already celebrated this season three finishes. "My goal is to climb the top 8 in the lead at the World Cup as well. For me to succeed, I will have to go to my limit, because the finalists will be hard fought. "And he is aware that already the semi-final qualification will not be a matter of course. Like Lehmann, Dimitri Vogt and Baptiste Ometz also compete in all three individual disciplines and in the combination. Nils Favre only denies the Boulder competition.
Strong Austrian delegation
“We started working with the team in February. It worked very well, we saw great progress in the team. Jakob Schubert and Jessica Pilz have shown outstanding achievements. Jessica won her first World Cup in Chamonix and came second in all other World Cups in the lead. Jakob has won two World Cups and is leading the World Cup ranking, ”explains Austrian national coach Roman Krajnik. In the bouldering discipline, the Austrians recently showed a solid performance in Munich. Jakob Schubert made it back on the podium and five women made it to the semi-finals.
Watch competitions live
All competitions can be followed live on the IFSC Youtube page:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ifscchannel/videos
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Credits: PD