New Speed champions crowned in Cheongsong

Spectators witnessed the thrill of the Speed duel on Sunday as new Speed champions were crowed in Cheongsong, Korea, the first stop of the 2014 UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup

When the ice had settled, left standing in first place were Nikolay Kuzovlev who beat Alexey Vagin to become the Grand Final winner for Men’s Speed and Kulikova Natalya who barely managed to edge out Filippova Maryam to become the Women’s Speed winner.

It was, as expected, an all-Russian affair, and the depth of the Russian talent in Speed climbing was evident by the fact that even those who didn’t make it to the podium, and who could just as easily have been standing in first place, were also Russians.

They included Maria Tolokonina, overall 2013 Lead champ and overall 2012 Speed champ who fell during her quarter-final match-up against Ha MinYoung of Korea and was knocked out of competition.

Other Russians who had posted strong speed times but left the competition in the quarter-finals included Alexey Tomilov, Egor Trapeznikov, the 2013 overall Speed winner who lost by a squeaker to Alexey Vagin and Pavel Gulayev who valiantly tried to complete a semi-final match-up with just one axe, after he dropped the other during the race.

Check the final Speed results here

Finals

Men

3rd and 4th place

Name	Country	R1	R2	Total	Rank
Ivan Spitsyn	RUS	08.52	09.43	17.95	3
Pavel Gulyaev	RUS	08.40	10.24	18.64	4

Women

3rd and 4th place

Name	Country	R1	R2	Total	Rank
Julia Oleynikova	RUS	23.55	18.26	41.81	3
MinYoung Ha	KOR	–	–	–	4

Semi-finals

Group 1

Group 2

START	COMPETITOR NAME	COUNTRY	TSHIRT
2	Kulikova Natalya	RUS	125
3	Oleynikova Julia	RUS	127

Group 2

START	COMPETITOR NAME	COUNTRY	TSHIRT
2	Gulyaev Pavel	RUS	33
3	Vagin Alexey	RUS	42

Quarter-finals

Men

Group 4

START	COMPETITOR NAME	COUNTRY	TSHIRT
3	Kartashev Vladimir	RUS	34
6	Gulyaev Pavel	RUS	33

Women

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3