For a third time, the city of Sunderland in the northeast of England, will host a UIAA Ice Climbing Continental Cup with competition taking place on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 February.
Some 70 athletes from the following countries – Canada, Czechia, France, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Switzerland and the USA will compete. Naturally, a strong contingent from the host federation, British Mountaineering Council (BMC), will contest the difficulty (lead) only competition.
This is the penultimate round of the Continental Series which has already seen competitions staged in Switzerland, Czechia, Slovakia, the Netherlands and Liechtenstein and will close with an event in Oulu, Finland on 7 March.
With an open field, Sunderland presents a fantastic opportunity for a number of new athletes to medal. Of the athletes currently in the top three of the Continental Tour rankings, Lea Beck (LIE) in the women’s event as well as men’s leader Jorge Veiga Rodriguez (ESP) and Andreas Gantner (LIE) are currently registered to compete. Adding lustre to the list are Ilona Serrer (FRA), currently fifth in the female rankings, as well as the siblings of Lea Beck and Andreas Gantner, Lorena Beck and Florian Gantner. Amongst the strong BMC squad, Mia Coia and Tabitha O’Carroll are fresh from claiming medals at the UIAA Ice Climbing World Youth Championships.
Livestreaming will be available throughout the day on Sunday from the semi-finals (11:00 local time) and finals (17:15) of the senior event as well as from the youth competition (13:30). This latter is for U16 and U18 age categories.
Current Continental Season Rankings (after five rounds)
Women: (1) M Van der Steen (NED), 317 points; (2) A Louzecka (CZE), 288 pts; (3) L Beck (LIE) 240 pts
Men: (1) J V Rodriguez (ESP), 259 points; (2) JA Brown (SUI) 245 pts; (3) A Gantner (LIE) 231 pts
The event is organised by the Scottish Dry-Tooling Club and the BMC.
Further Resources
Live Results
List of registered athletes
Event programme
Photo: Last weekend’s UIAA Ice Climbing Continental Cup in Malbun.
Credit: UIAA / Daniel Mangeng
