XIAMEN, China, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- The final stage of 2018 International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Cup tournaments concluded on Sunday here where the titles of speed and lead events were determined, as well as the season titles.
23-year-old Indonesian Aries Susanti Rahayu, ranked 6th in the qualifications of women's speed, surged to the final of Xiamen tournament. Playing the role of dark horse, she kept winning the battles in the main draw and outplayed many strong opponents.
In the final against Iuliia Kaplina, the third placed climber in the world ranking in speed this season, Rahayu finished 7.532 seconds while the Russian climber slipped to a fall. Anouck Jaubert from France finished the third in small final at 7.947 seconds.
French 34-year-old veteran Bassa Mawem showed his good form on Sunday, keeping his climbs of all rounds within 5.900 seconds since qualifications. He touched the top at 5.600 seconds in the final against the Indonesian Aspar Jaelolo, who is eight years younger but finished 0.02 seconds behind and missed the title.
Reza Alipour Shenazandifar from Iran touched top at 7.600 seconds and won the third place while his opponent Dmitril Timofeev from Russia fell in the small final.
In the lead competition, Domen Skofic from Slovenia and Stefano Ghisolfi from Italy touched the same height of 45+. Skofic won the men's title because of his better climb in the previous round. Min Hyunbin from South Korea settled in third.
In women's lead final, both Jessica Pilz from Austria and Janja Garnbert from Slovenia touched the top. The Austrian, ranked first in previous round, grabbed the title. Akiyo Noguchi from Japan followed in third.
After all the tournaments this season, Jaubert collected the women speed season title with 516 points and Danyil Boldyrev from Russia grab the men's speed season title with 413 points. The men and women's lead season titles went to Jakob Schubert from Austria and Garnbert respectively. The two also stand on the top of the overall world rankings.
