Viktoriia Meshkova and Aleksei Rubtsov Earn Spots At The 2020 Olympics
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The 2020 IFSC European Championships took place last week, November 21 to November 29, in Moscow, Russia. Following the week of competition, Russian athletes Viktoriia Meshkova and Aleksei Rubtsov took first to earn their Olympic berths.
Meshkova, 20, earned her ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Games after placing second in Speed, sixth in Bouldering and first in Lead. In second place was Stasa Gejo, from Serbia and in third was Eliska Adamovska, from the Czech Republic.
Meshkova wrote on Instagram, “I didn’t fully believe that it was possible… The realization that this was just one just one ticket, only the first place, all or nothing… It seem to be something unattainable.”
Meshkova has been competing in the international circuit since 2014. Her previous best placement was 14th in the 2017 Briançon Lead World Cup.
Rubtsov, 32, placed fifth in Speed, first in Bouldering and fourth in Lead. In second place was Sascha Lehmann, from Switzerland, and in third was Sergei Luzhetskii, from Russia.
Rubtsov is a veteran on the circuit. He’s been competing since 2008 and won the Bouldering World Championships in Qinghai, China, in 2009.
The next Olympic qualifying event will take place in Xiamen, China and will be the Asian Continental Championships. Following, two more Olympic qualifying events, in Sydney, Australia from December 19 to 20 and in Cape Town from December 17 to 20 for the Oceana and Africa Continental Championships, respectively. At each of these events, only the top place man and woman will receive Olympic invitations.
Results
Women
- Viktoriia Meshkova (RUS)
- Stasa Gejo (SRB)
- Eliska Adamovska (CZE)
- Patrycja Chudziak (POL)
- Chloe Caulier (BEL)
- Elena Krasovskaia (RUS)
- Hannah Meul (GER)
- Molly Thompson-Smith (GBR)
Men
- Alkesei Rubtsov (RUS)
- Sascha Lehmann (SUI)
- Sergei Luzhetskii (RUS)
- Nikolai Iarilovests (RUS)
- Yugal Shemla (ISR)
- Marcin Dzienski (POL)
- Alex Khazanov (ISR)
- William Bosi (GBR)
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