YOUR AD HERE »

Mascarenas, Hojer win bouldering World Cup

Melanie Wong
mwong@vaildaily.com
A massive crowd cheers for the world's best boulder climbers during the GoPro IFSC World Bouldering Championship finals at Mountain Plaza in Vail on Saturday. Cheering fans electrified atheletes giving their best go at climbing to the top of the podium.
Townsend Bessent | Townsend@vaildaily.com |

2015 ISFC Bouldering World Cup VAIL RESULTS

Men

1. Jan Hoyer (GER)

2. Nathaniel Coleman (USA)

3. Adam Ondra (CZE)

Women

1. Megan Mascarenas (USA)

2. Akiyo Noguchi (JAP)

3. Shauna Coxsey (GBR)

VAIL — Gray skies, chilly temps and an occasional drizzle didn’t deter a crowd of about 2,000 spectators from cheering on some of the world’s top climbers at the IFSC Bouldering World Cup finals on Saturday.

The crowd cheered on 17-year-old Colorado Springs native Megan Mascarenas as she climbed to the biggest win so far of her career. Meanwhile, American teammate Nathaniel Coleman, 18, of Utah, took second in the men’s competition behind Germany’s Jan Hojer.

The rest of the podium was rounded out on the women’s side by Japan’s Akiyo Noguchi and Great Britain’s Shauna Coxsey. On the men’s side, respected as one of the world’s best climbers in all disciplines, Czech Republic’s Adam Ondra came in third. American Margo Hayes also made it to the finals.



FINAL ROUND

The competition started with 125 athletes from 25 countries and came down to 13 athletes from seven countries in the final round. Climbers had four minutes per problem to complete four problems, and they were scored by completion of the problem, number of tries and whether they reached certain bonus holds.

Support Local Journalism



Mascarenas completed three of the four problems in the final with confidence and precision (no one completed Problem No. 4). Her performance included two “flashes,” or completions on the first attempt. She said afterward that the victory felt “unreal.”

“I’ve been idolizing some of these other competitors for a long time and wanting to climb like them. It’s still sinking in what just happened,” she said. “I was in the zone today. I never felt tired — I had adrenaline going the whole time.”

The GoPro Mountain Games is the only North American event of the World Cup circuit, so American climbers enjoyed one of the few times they get to climb for home crowds.

“It was crazy,” Mascarenas said of the crowds. “I take a lot of pride of winning in front of my own country and in my own state.”

Meanwhile, Coleman wowed spectators as he sped up the fourth and final problem when many other climbers were beginning to show signs of fatigue. At the top, he pumped his fist and yelled to the crowd.

“It was awesome to be in front of a home crowd. It was probably the best moment of my life when I got to the top of Problem 4,” he said.

Hojer climbed consistently through the finals to cinch the win, besting Coleman and Ondra, who climbed with calculation and precision, but ran into trouble on the last two problems.

There were several notable absences on the women’s side. Austrian favorite Anna Stohr dropped out after the second problem due to a finger injury, and another favorite, American Alex Pucchio, suffered a knee injury earlier in competition. She has a torn ACL and partial MCL tear, she said.

“It was before the qualifiers. It was just a freak accident while I was warming up. I took a weird fall,” she said.

Assistant Managing Editor Melanie Wong can be reached at 970-748-2927 or at mwong@vaildaily.com. Follow her on Twitter @mwongvail.


Support Local Journalism