1st UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup competition in 2011
12.01.2011
Last weekend, January 8 and 9, 2011, was the first UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup competition for 2011, held in Cheongsong, Korea (http://www.iceclimbing.kr/english/). For the first time, a World Cup ice climbing competition was organized in Asia. "This is a welcome event for all Korean climbers. As the first UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup competition in Asian countries, it will greatly motivate climbers in Korea as well as those in Japan and China," said Lee Injeong, president of the Korean Alpine Federation, before the opening on Friday, January 7.
Competitors, both men and women, competed in difficulty and speed climbing, including Slovenians, our best ice climbers, the twin brothers Matevž and Jernej Vukotič.
In difficulty, as many as 50 men and 34 women competed in Korea, and in the speed competition, 33 men and 21 women. The only Slovenian representatives in Korea placed in difficulty (won by the 2010 World Cup winner Austrian Markus Bendler) Jernej Vukotič in 27th and Matevž Vukotič in 35th place, in the speed trial (won by Russian Maxim Tomilov) Matevž was excellent 16th, Jernej 24th.
More about the performances of our competitors in the report.
On Monday, January 10, 2011, an interview with our competitors, the Vukotič brothers, was published on National Geographic.
The next World Cup competition will be in Saas Fee, Switzerland, on January 21 and 22, which will also include difficulty and speed climbing. Matevž and Jernej Vukotič and Tjaša Kosič will participate in this competition.
The remaining two competitions out of this year's four for the WC (the competition in Val Daone, January 15-16, 2011, was canceled due to the death of a member of the organizing committee) will be in Romania (Busteni, February 5-6, 2011), http://www.iwcbusteni.ro/2011/, and in Russia (Kirov, March 6-8, 2011), http://iceclimbcupkirov.blogspot.com/.
Our competitors will participate in the latter two if they have good previous results and financial capabilities.
