Anak Verhoeven, 6th at the World Cup in Puurs

The 2013 edition of the Puurs World Cup ended with an amazing inexpected result. Our compatriot Anak Verhoeven finished 6th of a competition she'll remember for a long time.
Saturday morning, nothing could have predicted such a result. The competition of the Belgian could have ended the day before during the qualifications. After a good performance in the first route, Anak falls very early in her second. She still manages to make it into the semi-finals. On the semi route, the climber shows an incredible determination. Pushed by her home gym audience she climbs perfectly and makes it to the 42nd hold. She gets a ticket to her first Wold Cup final.
At 5:30pm, Anak is the first to climb in the final route. She already made her competition but still climbs at her best. She finally ends 6th behind the world class climbers out of wich the Korean Ja-In Kim and Slovenian Mina Markovic. Both of them top the final route but the first one manages to send it in the time limit while the second exceeds the time by 10 seconds. They classed themselves in that order.
The men's final is more explosive. A jump in the middle of the route makes the unsure climbers fall. The favorite climber Ramon Julian Puigblanque couldn't manage to pass it. After this hard section, it's the Austrian Jakob Schubert who wins the competition. He falls at three quarters of the route. The audience was a bit disappointed, they would have liked to see the climbers go higher.

Anak Verhoeven's performance must not hide the performance of the other Belgians competing. Mathilde Brumagne makes it to the 12th position. She misses a couple of holds to make it to the finals. Other semi-finalist, Loic Timmermans doesn't climb as well. Surprised by the first part of the route, he falls early and ends 22nd.

We'll also note the dyno contest that took place on Saturday afternoon. The Swiss Rebekka Stotz jumps 2m10 while the Belgian Tim Goossens equals his Belgian record two times with a jump to 2m75.

The 2013 Puurs World Cup edition gave a nice show. The hundred volontaries who worked for the competition took part in a lot of things for the success. Some people will be surprised that there won't be a 2014 edition. The priorities are elsewhere: concentrate on a new competition format or save same money for Klimax III, the boulder gym project the should be built next year. Still, Tuur Ceulers, president of the Klim- en Bergsportfederatie, gaves to the audience a meeting in 2015.

Results and pictures of the Puurs Lead World Cup

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