Finals

Check out on Mountain.RU: Reports News Comments about UIAA-ICC WORLD Rock-climbing CUP - MOSCOW 2005

Instead of the foreword (Jacky, I don't want to allude to anything): A big terrible bear fisted a small mouse. The mouse, hardly putting out his nose could only said: "Well what of it? " The bear answered twisting the mouse's neck: "That is all there is to it".

Olga Bibik

- What do I think about the competitions? - pip-pip... pip... (deleted by a spelling corrector). I'm the loser. The April appeared a heavy month.

It seems to me, I've gone stale a bit. Or, as you notice I can have a climbing slowdown in Aprils. Last year I came off a loser too right in April. And because of cancellation of two World Cup stages (In the USA and Italy, - A.P.) I have no chances to win the Big Cup. Or a marvel would happen and Sandrine will miss qualifying for the Finals of the rest two stages :-). The Championship is my sheet anchor :-)

Salavat Rakhmetov

- Well, what can I tell you? To tell the truth, the problems appeared heavy. And nobody expect that. I would tell they were the heaviest in Finals (He means all the World Cup Finals - A.P.). I do not remember that such heavy bouldering lines were somewhere else. It seems Jacky overestimated us (Godoffe - A.P.).

And the main thing I disliked- all of the problems were strength. There was not any technical one. Too "rough" lines. Perhaps, only the first and sixth problems were more - less technical. And all the others… hard-boiled. There were not enough foot-holds: they could add some and the lines would not become simpler, but would be more interesting.

Daniel DU LAC, a.k.a. DeDe

Final

DeDe: A very hard Final, the problems are of a space level. Nobody was at his best today. Though, probably, the lines could be really passable.
As for me personally, I have not reach my "last year's" shape yet. I hope to round in to my best form up to World Championship, the main start of the year. I think, no, I am sure, that things will shape well. These starts I consider as training. I qualified for the Final far enough from the others, but only thing I have not enough is strength training. As a whole, I am satisfied. At these competitions the difference between the third and the seventh or even the twelfth results are not very significant.

Problems
DeDe: I would not name the lines strength, more likely of "feel of control". That means at volumetric climbing in Final even if the line could be "read", it was very difficult instinctively to find a right body-position. Therefore there were a lot of falls. Jacky set very difficult lines, difficult for all climbers. Even to make a bonus was uneasy. You must be the best to send them. We have been taught an excellent lesson of rock-climbing today.

Tasks
DeDe: I do not aim to win the Big Cup this season, I did that last year. What about the World Championship? But that will be absolutely other story.

New rules
DeDe: You cannot touch a bouldering wall structure and you are banned to leave the gym mats to study holds better. All these innovations do not work for climbers. In my opinion all of this is for nothing. If these rules do not help to you to climb and do not add staginess is there a good sense of that?

MR: Do your have favorite places of competitions? Grenoble?
DeDe: Certainly, Grenoble. It's my native city and I frequently win there. And L'Argentiere la Besse.

MR: And for ice-climbing?
DeDe: Kirov.

MR: You keep ice-climbing?
DeDe: Three years ago I stopped to do that. 2002 was the last my "ice" season.

MR: Why?
DeDe: It is too dangerous to fall on ice cascades. However, at competitions it is better to avoid any falls at all. Ice-climbing in a present variant is very similar to rock-climbing. But originally the absolutely other idea was at the heart of ice-climbing. I hope it will return to the headwards, elegance, style, aestheticism. To my regret it became competitions of "tools" instead of sportsmen. It only my own opinion, probably, somebody is of a different mind.

MR: You managed to make a successful showing both in ice- and rock-climbing. What about bouldering and difficulty?
DeDe: You need to have a strong motivation if you want to combine two competitive disciplines. But I do not have either desire, or time to do that. Yes, I climb long routes, but compete only in bouldering. You have to expend all your time in rock-climbing if you want to combine successfully two disciplines, you have do a lot of work at getting so-called "rock-climbing mentality".

MR: And how do you work?
DeDe: I climb in Bleau. All the aspects are important: psychological, accumulation of experience, work above motivation, desire to win, desire to get a hold, mental work, but it is not enough of all of that: you have to train. This year I did not have not enough trainings.

MR: Do you prefer to climb with stronger climbers or on the contrary?
DeDe: I like to climb with strong partners, but there is not any competition moment between us: it's unimportantly who will make the block (bouldering - A.P.), you or someone else. Sometimes I climb with weaker climbers, and they "take" me. And that is normal. I try to train with different rock-climbers: everyone has his own style and something that I can adopt. I used to climb a lot with real climbers, and that helped me very much to improve my climbing and fit level. And today it became my strong point.

MR: What about your interior life?
DeDe: In this season I have a bad motivation. I parted from my girlfriend that I had been together rather long time and really was in love very much. The love is the true motor for trainings, for life, and it's a very important component in my life. It's the stability which invigorated me a lot. Now I lost that. Daniel DU LAC is single again.

MR: You are doing a lucky dip :-)
DeDe: No-no, put that in black and white: Daniel DU LAC is single and open to the offers :-)

To be continued... Interview with the winners: Jerome MEYER and Sandrine LEVET...

Portfolio

Olga BIBIK	Julia ABRAMCHUK	Emilie ABGRALL
Jenny LAVARDA	Melanie SON, Jenny LAVARDA	Olga BIBIK
Maud ANSADE	Leire AGUIRRE	Melanie SON
Anna STOHR	Anna STOHR	Anna STOHR
Christian CORE	Salavat RAKHMETOV	Serik KAZBEKOV
Christian CORE	Daniel DU LAC	Salavat RAKHMETOV
Kilian FISCHUBER	Loic CAIDIOS	Loic CAIDIOS