Two weekends full of comps and emotions - 14. Mai 2014

Making it to semi-finals in a World Cup isn’t easy and sometimes even the best don’t make it. Yet of course it was my first big goal ever since I started competing in the World Cups and I was determined to make it there at some point. I felt it was possible, I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon. I’ve been looking forward to Grindelwald, I felt in good shape lately and most of all I was really motivated to climb on world class problems. Qualifiers were even better than expected and suited me well with lots of dynamic movements which also required a whole lot of coordination. The first problem was rather easy and I managed to start with a flash. It took me a few tries to figure out the end of number two but I finally made it to the top.

Foto: David Schweizer


I had some more trouble on the third and the fourth problem and only got the bonus hold. On the last boulder, I stuck the dynamic starting move second try and surprised myself by managing the crimpy finish straight away. I figured it didn’t go too bad but when my teammates told me it was enough to make semis, I first couldn’t believe it. When it finally sunk in, I was incredibly happy and I couldn’t wait to climb again the next day. Also Kevin Heiniger managed to squeeze in and made his first semi-finals alongside Beni, Rebekka and Petra. It’s been a long time since so many Swiss made it to the next round and all this in front of our home crowd!

Unfortunately it didn’t go too well in semi-finals and I only got one bonus hold. I’m not completely unhappy with my climbing, I got quite close on two of the problems and one top would’ve definitely been possible which was almost enough to make the top ten. Sadly close wasn’t close enough and I ended up placing 20th. I was a bit disappointed at first but then I reminded myself that I never expected to get that far in the first place, so looking back now I’m pretty satisfied with my overall performance. Rebekka made her first finals ever in a World Cup and got placed 6th, so strong! Jan Hojer was the winner for the men and Shauna Coxsey finally got her well-deserved first victory, congratulations! It was a great event and especially the setting was amazing, fun to climb and exciting to watch, well done guys! I also wanna thank everybody who came to cheer on us, especially my „godfather“ from the Swiss Sports Aid, thank you so much for your support!

This weekend in Innsbruck was everything other than successful for our team. Nobody made it to semi-finals and Petra even sprained her ankle while falling on the last move of the fourth problem. Luckily there’s no serious damage and she should be able to climb again soon. I managed to climb two problems in six tries which got me placed 35th. Another top on number three or four felt possible but I wasn’t able to put it together.

Foto: Elias Holzknecht
So we already drove back home on Saturday since we were all competing in the Swiss Championships in Grindelwald on Sunday. Fortunately also Petra was able to compete again and even managed to maintain her title, nice job!


Foto: David Schweizer
There were four of us who climbed all problems in qualification and I made it to finals in 3rd place. I could do three out of four final problems, as did Petra and Rebekka but they needed less tries than me which made me finish 3rd. I guess I need to work on climbing more efficiently so I don’t need as many attempts but I’m happy with my result. The setting by the same team from last weekend was once more amazing and I really enjoyed climbing. We were all a bit disappointed though by the small crowd and the rather lame atmosphere, hopefully there will be more people next time, we’re trying our best to make a good show ;)


Foto: David Schweizer