Alex Puccio (USA) and Sean McColl (CAN) are

Press Release
12 August 2012
Climbing Rock Show in the Porsche-Arena Stuttgart
Alex Puccio (USA) and Sean McColl (CAN)
are the adidas ROCKSTARS 2012
In a thrilling final, which could hardly be outgunned in terms of drama, Alex
Puccio from the USA and Sean McColl from Canada claimed the highly paid
title adidas ROCKSTAR 2012 this weekend. Around 70 of the world’s best
bouldering athletes from 20 different countries travelled to Stuttgart,
Germany, to experience a top-class bouldering competition. On a giant stage
with catwalk and live band the pro climbers felt like rock stars. And that’s
exactly the objective of the event, which combines rock climbing with rock
music to stage an intoxicating sports show.
Especially the twelve finalists who had successfully made their way through
qualification and semis, could enjoy the extra boost of adrenaline and excitement
during the solemnly athlete presentation on a long catwalk, which opened the final.
Heated up by Swiss rock band Sideburn, the top 6 men and women started into a
thrilling battle on artificial rock, during which Canadian Sean McColl proved that he
deserved his allotted start number 1. After placing fourth in the qualification and
winning the semi final, Sean also dominated the final flashing every single boulder.
At first it seemed as if the route setters went easy on the climbers after the tough
semi final in the afternoon, in which Sean McColl, Alex Puccio and Akiyo Noguchi
from Japan were the only athletes who could top all four boulders. Everyone easily
solved boulder 1 in the first or second attempt clocking under two minutes. Sean
McColl only needed 24 seconds for his flash.
Then the crowd saw ten of the twelve finalists flash boulder number 2. Norwegian
climber Therese Johansen and Jeremy Bonder from France were the only ones
who needed more than one attempt to solve the problem, which put Therese
Johansen, Austria’s Katharina Saurwein and Akiyo Noguchi all on third place with
an even score. Since the adidas ROCKSTARS format stipulates that the top 3
finalists advance to the next round, the competition jury had to make the call and
decided in favour of the athletes. All five girls got the chance to give their best
effort on boulder number 3. In the men’s category the result was clear: Sean
McColl, Jon Cardwell from the United States and Guillaume Glairon-Mondet from
France qualified for the next round.
Akiyo Noguchi was the first to try boulder 3. Flash! Although the tiny Japanese
seemed to climb the boulder effortlessly, it soon turned out that it wasn’t that easy.
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Neither Therese Johansen nor Katharina Saurwein were able to top it. And even
American powerhouse Alex Puccio had to surrender, after she had almost reached
the top hold and slipped off. Now the doors to the super final were wide open for
Juliane Wurm. The five-time German Champion and silver medallist of the
European Championship was on 5th place after the semi final. But after a long and
tough competition day she had no more power to solve the problem. Thus the first
super final fixture was set: Akiyo Noguchi versus last year’s runner-up Alex Puccio.
“I’m really happy with my 3rd place. The first two boulders were ok, but the last one
was very hard and my shape was just not good enough, so there was nothing
more I could do“, Jule Wurm explained afterwards. „The athlete lounge has even
improved compared to last year and the crowd watching us is bigger, which is so
cool. You feel like a real rock star when you’re out there on stage; especially the
live music distinguishes adidas ROCKSTARS from any other competition.”
Now it was the men’s turn to create some extra excitement. All three flashed the
third boulder problem. Once again the competition jury got together and decided to
do a tiebreak on a forth boulder. While the route setters quickly built a new
problem, human beatboxers Camero and Robeat entertained the crowds in the
Porsche-Arena with a mind-blowing show-battle.
Although set under pressure, tiebreak boulder 4 turned out to be the master piece
of Reini Fichtinger and his team as it separated the wheat from the chaff. After
Guillaume Glairon-Mondet had failed and Jon Cardwell had at least reached the
bonus hold, Sean McColl demonstrated impressively, how you can flash a boulder
that first seems impossible to climb. It was his ticket to the super final, together
with runner-up Jon Cardwell.
In the super final both athletes had to climb simultaneously an identical route on a
dual boulder without seeing each other. In the women’s category, Alex Puccio built
on her experience from the inaugural event when Anna Stöhr was already half way
up while she was still studying the route. "This was my second year climbing the
super boulder and I learned from my mistakes; last year I was a bit slow as I
actually looked at the boulder problem before I got on it. As I had that in mind I
decided that if I get to the super final this year l will not look - I will just go onto the
boulder!“ The six times American Champion only needed 25 seconds to climb on
top and hit the buzzer.
“adidas ROCKSTARS is such an amazing event”, Puccio raved after the award
ceremony. “I’m really excited for the third edition of it as it just keeps on getting
better and better every year. It’s already an amazing competition and I would love
to be back. Why should you do this event? Because you have the time of your life;
it’s exciting, thrilling and you will not want to leave!"
With a perfect dyno at first attempt and his fifth flash in the final Sean McColl
secured his adidas ROCKSTARS victory a few minutes later. His bib number
literally matched his performance, as he was truly the number one athlete of the
competition.
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"The super boulder was really fun even though it wasn’t the hardest boulder in the
final“, he said afterward. „To tell you the truth we’re all really good friends and I
didn’t really care if I would win or not today. The format of the competition is similar
to other competitions; the final round is what really stands out and makes it so
cool. When I have dreams about perfect competitions it’s very similar to adidas
ROCKSTARS; the athletes lounge, all the security, a huge arena, phenomenal
competition and organization - as you can imagine I had a great weekend!“
Jon Cardwell was also stoked, not only about the 20,000 Euro prize purse that was
issued among the finalists. “adidas ROCKSTARS is really special, unlike any other
event that I have ever been to for climbing, it’s such a nice space for us back at the
athlete lounge and the atmosphere is very friendly, the walls are great - I’m just
really impressed.”
Mountaineering legend Reinhold Messner, who came specifically to Stuttgart to
watch the event, was taken with the concept and the achievements of the
bouldering athletes. "This is a fantastic event and it is hosted in the right place, in
the centre of a major city, accessible to everyone and environmentally justifiable.
What I like about bouldering is that in addition to strength, creativity and speed you
need savvy, as you always have to chose the right route."
For questions please contact:
Sonja Güldner-Hamel
PLANET TALK GmbH
Tel.: +49-8061-35059-12
Fax: +49-8061-35059-10
Email: [email protected]
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