Wujiang Speed World Cup Recap
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.
Early this morning, May 3, the third Speed World Cup for the 2019 season was streamed worldwide on the Olympic Channel in preparation for the 2020 Olympics. The World Cup, which took place in Wujiang, China, marked the halfway point leading up to the World Championships in Hachioji, Japan in August. In total, spectators watched over three hundred runs from 150 athletes, each run taking around five to thirteen seconds long.
[Also watch: Why It’s Almost Impossible to Climb 15 Meters in 5 Secs]
In the men’s bracket, John Brosler placed the best from the U.S. athletes with a time of 6.225. He was just one spot out of the ⅛ final. “One out is a bummer, but I’m stoked on the improvement from the last ones,” Brosler said. Brosler is a six-time U.S. National Champion and recently won the 2018 Pan-American Championships.
Dmitrii Timofeev, from Russia, distinguished himself in the ½ final with the fastest time of the competition, 5.580, just one-tenth of a second off of the world record, set by Reza Alipourshena in 2017. Bassa Mawem, the winner of the first speed World Cup in Moscow, was close behind Timofeev with a time of 5.889.
Alipourshena and Ludovico Fossali, from Italy, battled for bronze in the small final. Fossali came out victorious and won his first 2019 medal. Mawem and Timofeev raced each other in the big final and Timofeev easily claimed gold.
2019 U.S. National Champion Emma Hunt was the closest American in the women’s bracket to make it past qualifications. Her time of 8.759 wash just shy of the 8.368 time needed to qualify for the next round.
YiLing Song qualified for the ⅛ round in second, with the time 7.566, behind Aleksandra (Ola) Rudzinska, from Poland. Rudzinska posted a time of 7.285, her personal best and what would have been a new world record, if not for Song’s record-breaking time of 7.101 in Chongqing last week.
Song unexpectedly slipped in the ⅛ final and failed to move on to the next round. Of the competitors that did advance, four out of the eight were the same competitors to do so last week. Moving on to the ½ final was Rudzinska, Aries Susanti Rahayu, from Indonesia, Anouck Jaubert, from France, and Anna Tsyganova, from Russia. Rudzinska beat her personal record again with a time of 7.280.
Jaubert earned bronze, her 37th career IFSC medal, after beating Tsyganova in the small final by just 0.025 seconds. Rudzinska took gold against Susanti Rahayu with a time of 7.313.
Results can be found below or on IFSC.
| Rank | Name | Nation | StartNr | Final | Small Final | ½ Final | ¼ Final | ⅛ Final | Qualification |
| 1 | Timofeev, Dmitrii | RUS | 8 | 5.597 | 5.580 | 5.695 | 5.856 | 5.683 | |
| 2 | Mawem, Bassa | FRA | 6 | 5.810 | 5.962 | 5.855 | 5.889 | 5.769 | |
| 3 | Fossali, Ludovico | ITA | 47 | 5.856 | 6.566 | 5.783 | 6.066 | 6.182 | |
| 4 | Alipourshena, Reza | IRI | 32 | 6.436 | 5.627 | 5.739 | 5.904 | 5.657 |
| Rank | Name | Nation | StartNr | Final | Small Final | ½ Final | ¼ Final | ⅛ Final | Qualification |
| 1 | Rudzinska, Aleksandra | POL | 154 | 7.313 | 7.280 | 7.624 | 7.541 | 7.285 | |
| 2 | Susanti Rahayu, Aries | INA | 136 | 7.607 | 7.717 | 7.828 | 8.197 | 7.793 | |
| 3 | Jaubert, Anouck | FRA | 103 | 7.516 | 7.668 | 7.778 | 7.927 | 7.732 | |
| 4 | Tsyganova, Anna | RUS | 149 | 7.541 | 7.720 | 8.592 | 7.838 | 8.089 |