http://www.climber.co.uk MAY JUN 2020 11
(GER) and Nathaniel Coleman (USA). To the surprise of many, two-time
CWIF champion and Olympian, Alex Megos, was forced down into
seventh place and hence just missed the fi nal. Brooke Raboutou and
Molly Thompson-Smith came in second and third behind Toothill whilst
Hannah Slaney (4th), Thea Cameron (5th) and Jennifer Wood (6th) also
made it through to the fi nal.
In the men’s fi nal, Yoshiyuki Ogata, having been denied a top by M1,
fl ashed M2 a gnarly powerful volume-wrestling monster. Nathan Phillips
also fl ashed M2 but the rest of the fi eld were stopped dead in their tracks.
M3 united the men’s fi eld by stopping everyone, no-one even made the
Zone even. Perhaps surprisingly, given Percy Bishton’s reticence regard-
ing parkour style blocs, M4 was a real dynamic, multi-move sequence
parkour beast. Impressively, however, Jan Hojer promptly fl ashed it as
though it was a warm-up; Ogata got it second go and Coleman on his
fi fth attempt. However, the British contingent of Phillips, Ridal and Pope
were all decidedly shut down. When the scores were added up Ogota
had taken the win by the slenderest of margins – just a single additional
zone; Hojer come in second and Coleman third.
Whilst podium places eluding the British men, the British women
were well-placed to scoop at least two of the three places given Brooke
Raboutou was the only non-Brit in the fi nal line-up. W1, an overhanging
wall, was duly fl ashed by Thompson-Smith, Toothill and Raboutou to
get the comp off to a fl ying start. The heinous slab that the setters had
constructed for W2 stopped all the fi nalists pretty much dead in their
tracks. W3, an overhanging compression/parkour-style bloc was fl ashed
by Thompson-Smith, Toothill and Raboutou again to set up a thrilling
fi nale. Thompson-Smith blasted out the only top of W4 to take the win
with three tops; Toothill and Raboutou with two tops each were only
separated by their number of zones. ■
This year’s men’s CWIF champion Yoshiyuki Ogata from Japan shows good footwork
pays off. Photo: Keith SharplesBREAK TH
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