Paraclimbing bronze for Selak at Worlds

Paraclimbing bronze for Selak at Worlds, Glušič and Arh also successful.



Slovenian paraclimber Gregor Selak has climbed to the bronze medal for the third time in a row at the paraclimbing world championships, while in Briançon, Tanja Glušič, who missed the final by half a move, finished fifth, and Matej Arh placed tenth in a significantly more demanding category. Sometimes luck, this time bad sports luck marked this year's most important challenge for the Slovenian paraclimbing team, which seeks reforms in the competitive discipline.







Gregor Selak (Društvo za razvoj plezalne kulture) easily qualified for the final at the paraclimbing world championships held on 16 and 17 July in France, as he shared first place in qualifications, but fell on a delicate move just below the top in the most important route, thus returning from the world championships with bronze for the third time in a row, which he won in the RP3 movement limitation category last year in Innsbruck and in 2016 in Paris. "I climbed the qualifications well, but for the final we knew speed would decide, and I made a mistake at the top. The medal is fine, but I must say I wanted and expected more. I'm a bit disappointed," summed up the 30-year-old from Škofja Loka, a former member of the youth national team in sport climbing, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2014 and has successfully continued his sports career as a paraclimber since 2016. Selak already won the masters in Imst at the end of June as a season opener, but in Briançon had to concede to the locals, three-time world champion Romain Pagnoux and runner-up Mathieu Besnard.







Deaf-blind climber Tanja Glušič (AK Ravne) with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism spectrum disorder, finished fifth in qualifications among ten competitors, missing fourth place and advancement to the final by just half a move. "I climbed the first route a bit tense and missed one plus for the final. The second route was unfortunately too easy for this level and it was no longer possible to improve the placement, as all the better climbers reached the top. Of course I'm sad, especially since I was well prepared this year," said Glušič, who competed in the B2 visual impairment category, won by Briton Abigail Robinson, the competitor with by far the best vision in that category. The 23-year-old from Prevalje, Slovenia's 2018 athlete of the year among the disabled, won a silver medal at the 2014 world championships in Gijón - then still under her mother's guidance - the first Slovenian paraclimbing medal for Slovenia, and at last year's world championships in Innsbruck under coach Jurij Ravnik's guidance, she climbed to bronze. She also started this season with a bronze medal at the paraclimbing masters in Imst.







A cold shower was experienced by Matej Arh (AO PD Kranj) at his first world championships, once a promising alpinist who has paraparesis, partial spinal cord interruption, after an accident in an icy waterfall in 2017. From the navel downwards, he uses only 30 percent of muscles, can partially move his legs, but cannot use hips, ankles, glutes, and most muscles. After a short medical examination, he was moved at the last moment to the more demanding RP2 movement limitation category, although he has competed in RP1 for two seasons, and there was no possibility to appeal the decision, as the doctors announced it only in the evening when they had already left. Still, in the much tougher category, where Iranian Behnam Khalaji won, he climbed well and finished tenth out of 16 competitors. "I was shocked when they placed me in a higher category after a short medical check. Still, I tried to climb my best and I'm satisfied with the climbing. I won't comment on the placement," said the 25-year-old from Preddvor, who stepped onto the second step of the podium in his category in Imst as a season opener.







"It's hard to comment on such championships, as if everything conspired a bit against us. We trained hard for half a year and I would much rather see a better organized and fair competition. Grega and Tanja did decide for themselves, but the RP3 final was literally a speed race, where you had to climb under two minutes for gold, and then mistakes happen. The women's B2 qualifications were also a bit of a farce, as realistically only one route decided the final, where Tanja unfortunately made a mistake and narrowly missed advancement. But on the other hand, it's a competition and sometimes you have bad luck. I was impressed by Matej Arh's climbing, who after a one-minute medical check was moved to a higher category as the only one on crutches and with distinctly poorer leg usage. In qualifications, he struggled halfway up routes that others climbed normally. I can only congratulate him for staying positive after a decision that even his competitors did not approve of," presented the broader picture of this year's world championships by the selector of the Slovenian paraclimbing team Jurij Ravnik and added: "We move on, we want more competitions per year and for paraclimbing to slowly start reforming. After the super championships in Innsbruck, this was certainly a big step back."







Paraclimbing experts have been pointing out the need for reforms for some time to provide competitors with more equal conditions, Ravnik also points to holes in the system: "Categories are poorly defined and it's more than obvious that some competitors do not belong where they are classified. They look for loopholes, use just the right reports and try their luck at smaller competitions to reclassify competitors, once they are in a category they like and where they easily win, they cannot be moved anymore. Matej, for example, would now have to get slightly different reports and complain at the next competition, where he could play it a bit, say come in a wheelchair, just so they put him in RP1, then he's set for all future competitions. We think that's wrong, but then you have competitions where one or two competitors climb the final to the top like warm-up. If the system has loopholes, some will exploit them. This needs to be resolved at the level of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) and not count on competitors being honest themselves. For some, gold means more than a fair competition. The consequence is that the B2 queen from England, who absolutely does not belong in B2, takes a spot from one of the other competitors, unfortunately our Tanja this year. There are many such anomalies. Of course, the reform doesn't stop there, we need better set routes, more competitions, better organization and connectivity. Not everything is on IFSC's shoulders, but it has to start there."