Mina Markovič overall winner

Yesterday and today, November 16 and 17, 2013, the Zlato polje sports hall turned into a hall full of enthusiastic fans, as the world's best sport climbers competed for the final decisions in the Sport Climbing World Cup under the auspices of the International Federation of Sport Climbing IFSC. At the final World Cup lead event here in Kranj, Japanese climber Momoka Oda won, our Mina Markovič was an excellent 3rd, and she won the overall World Cup combined ranking – for the third time in a row. Another of our finalists – Maja Vidmar – was eighth. Jain Kim, fourth this time, won the overall World Cup lead ranking.



Yesterday's qualifications featured 41 women and 59 men, a total of 100 of the world's best sport climbers, including 17 Slovenian representatives; yesterday's evening semifinals had 26 top men and 27 women climbers, and today's FINAL saw 8 top men and women from the semifinals, including in the women's category Mina Markovič with the 2nd qualification result and Maja Vidmar as 8th.

The competition was, as always, excellently prepared, and tense due to the excellently prepared competitors, as it decided the overall World Cup lead winner for 2013 in both men's and women's categories, where our best sport climber Mina Markovič fought for her third overall win. All finalists gave their all and thus rewarded the organizers, the PZS Sport Climbing Commission with its large and excellent team, as well as the spectators and fans in the Zlato polje sports hall in Kranj, who with their enthusiasm for climbing lifted every competitor even higher.

Women's category: Japanese Momoka Oda won, third in the 2013 World Cup overall lead and combined rankings, second was this year's lead World Cup debutante, otherwise excellent boulderer, Japanese Akiyo Noguchi. Third was our best sport climber Mina Markovič, who won the World Cup overall combined ranking for the third time in a row, while in the World Cup overall lead ranking this year – after two overall wins in 2011 and 2012 – Korean Jain Kim (fourth in Kranj this time) was better, beating Mina in the overall by 20 points (Jain: 625 points, Mina: 605 points). Maja Vidmar, who qualified for the Kranj World Cup final every time since 2002 and won in 2006 and 2007, achieved 8th place in the final this time. Mina Markovič won the World Cup lead in Kranj in 2009 and 2012.

In the men's category, last year's winner, Austrian Jakob Schubert won, also the overall World Cup combined winner; second was excellent Czech Adam Ondra, third Japanese Sachi Amma, the 2013 World Cup overall lead winner – just like in 2012.



Mina Markovič fought at the competition for the third consecutive World Cup win in lead and combined, as she won both in 2011 and 2012. Even before the end of today's competition, it was clear that Mina was also the overall World Cup combined winner, which includes the five best results from two out of three disciplines (lead, boulder, speed).



Slovenian placements at the final World Cup lead event:

The Slovenian team at the final World Cup in Kranj, besides Mina and Maja (total 7 girls and 10 boys), also included Tina Šušteršič, Jera Lenardič, Katja Kadič, Tjaša Kalan and Anja Šerbinek, in the men's category Domen Škofic, Urban Primožič, Jure Bečan, Klemen Bečan, Jure Raztresen, Sergej Epih, Jernej Kruder, Gregor Vezonik, Martin Bergant and Gašper Pintar. From qualifications, 5 girls and 5 boys advanced to semifinals, so we had the strongest national representation in the semifinal showdown: Urban Primožič, Domen Škofic, Sergej Epih, Klemen Bečan and Jure Raztresen, who surprised everyone in the semifinal and qualified just behind the final top 8 in 9th place, and in women's Mina Markovič, Maja Vidmar, Tjaša Kalan, Jera Lenardič and Tina Šušteršič. The rest of our competitors ended in qualifications. To reach the final, they had to climb the demanding semifinal route, both in women's and men's. Our competitors Mina and Maja climbed the semifinal route confidently, not to the top, but secured the final.

Other placements of our competitors:

- 16th Tjaša Kalan, 20th Jera Lenardič, 26th Tina Šušteršič, 34th Anja Šerbinek, 38th Katja Kadič, and

- 9th Jure Raztresen, 12th Sergej Epih, 16th Klemen Bečan, 17th Urban Primožič, 24th Domen Škofic, 27th Gašper Pintar, 32nd Martin Bergant, 33rd Jure Bečan, 43rd Gregor Vezonik, 44th Jernej Kruder.



STATEMENTS:

Head coach of the Slovenian senior sport climbing team Simon Margon assessed today's competition and the entire season as follows: "Mina achieved one of the goals she set or that we set as a team today. Unfortunately, this placement was not enough for the overall World Cup lead win, but in combined she proved for the third time in a row that she is the best sport climber in the world. The international competition season is over, we have one national championship left (Kranj, Nov 29–Dec 1), so there will be time for rest and reflection on the season in mid-December. We achieved most of the goals we set for this season. We can look forward to the next season optimistically. With some changes in the training system and fine-tuning a few details, the Slovenian team will be even stronger – in both women's and men's categories."



Mina Markovič, 25-year-old from Ptuj, member of Climbing Club PK 6b Ptuj, who will celebrate her 26th birthday on November 23, is today's bronze medalist and for the third time in a row the overall World Cup 2013 combined winner – no other sport climber has achieved this yet. After the competition, she said: "The overall World Cup combined winner title is good and worthy of respect, I'm even happier because I achieved it for the THIRD time in a row. About today's climbing, I can say I'm not satisfied with it, although I started very well. Where I stopped up there, one part of my indecisiveness came to the fore, and somehow at the end I no longer trusted myself that this was the right combination. Then I was solving and waiting too long, in the end I did basically what I positioned myself at the beginning, but it all took too much strength from me, so unfortunately I couldn't see and feel those holds on the back side myself, which looked really tempting. I'm sorry I didn't climb today as I'm capable, but that's sport, competition is competition. The atmosphere in the hall was crazy, excellent, I heard all the encouragements, so THANK YOU to the audience!"

"Otherwise, this season was tough, but all the effort paid off. Now a day of rest follows, then I'm already heading to Chamonix for the military games/competition."



Jain Kim, overall winner of this year's World Cup lead: "This year's World Cup didn't go according to plan, as I had an injury and it was a tough time for me. But I performed well in the continuation of the season, I'm also satisfied with today's competition and the overall win. I'm happy for Mina, her third place and overall combined win. Mina and I are friends, we influence each other, we're like partners who debate the routes together during inspection before the competition. We wish each other the best."



Momoka Oda, winner of the final World Cup Kranj 2013: "The final route had a lot of hard moves, yes, it was hard itself. I gave everything, put in all my strength and won. I like the World Cup in Kranj, I always like coming here – I plan to come next year too.



RESULTS final World Cup lead, Kranj 2013:

women (full results)

1. Momoka Oda, JAP

2. Akiyo Noguchi, JAP

3. Mina MARKOVIČ, SLO

…

8. Maja VIDMAR, SLO

...

16. Tjaša Kalan, SLO

20. Jera Lenardič, SLO

26. Tina Šušteršič, SLO

34. Anja Šerbinek, SLO

38. Katja Kadič, SLO



Women: total 41 competitors.



Men: total 59 competitors men (full results)

1. Jakob SCHUBERT, AVT

2. Adam Ondra (CZE)

3. Sachi AMMA, JAP

...

9. Jure Raztresen, SLO

12. Sergej Epih, SLO

16. Klemen Bečan, SLO

17. Urban Primožič, SLO

24. Domen Škofic, SLO

27. Gašper Pintar, SLO

32. Martin BERGANT, SLO

33. Jure Bečan, SLO

43. Gregor Vezonik, SLO

44. Jernej Kruder, SLO

Total participants in the final World Cup sport climbing lead, Kranj 2013: 100 competitors from 22 countries worldwide.



OVERALL STANDINGS (Source: IFSC)



Lead

women (full results)

1. Jain KIM, KOR, 675.00 points

2. Mina MARKOVIČ, SLO, 617.00

3. Momka Oda, JAP, 522.00 men (full results)

1. Sachi AMMA, JAP, 572.00

2. Jakob SCHUBERT, AVT, 535.00

3. Ramón JULIAN PUIGBLANQUE, ESP, 420.00



Combined

women (full results)

1. Mina MARKOVIČ, SLO, 648.00

2. Akiyo NOGUCHI, JAP, 634.00

3. Momoka ODA, JAP, 628.00 men (full results)

1. Jakob SCHUBERT, AVT, 755.00

2. Sean MCCOLL, CAN, 651.00

3. Sachi AMMA, JAP, 507.00



The competition was watched LIVE during the event via IFSC TV web, and the final on Sunday, November 17, also via Slovenian TV Slovenija, 2nd channel.