This time they were tears of joy for Maria Tolokonina.
After a less than stellar performance in the qualifying round that left her frustrated and a semi-final climb that placed her in the lead, Tolokonina won the Women’s Lead final in dramatic fashion in literally the final seconds.
Tolokonina and Rainer both reached the final ice barrel and hold. But Tolokonina had a dramatic last second fall to tie Rainer in points.
Her better semi-final performance, however, meant that Tolokonina came out winner.
As she was lowered down she waved to the spectators and could not hold back tears of relief, a dramatic contrast to the opposite emotion she felt on the first day of competition during the qualifications.
In third place was the Czech Republic’s Lucie Hrozova.
The final competition also saw a surprisingly strong performance by Switzerland’s Petra Klinger, who fresh from her under 22 victory at the first UIAA Ice Climbing Youth World Championships in Saas Grund, came in fourth place.
Three climbers (Liudmilla Badalyan, Maryam Filippova and Seon Woon Shin) all struggled and fell at the wooden log in the second phase of the climbing wall.
