Puccio and Bailey stop Japanese rout at Vail
- Monday 11th June 2018
June 11th; 2018
USA climbers Alex Puccio and Sean Bailey get gold and silver respectively in Vail IFSC World Cup bouldering round whilst Japanese climbers pick-up all other podium positions.
Alex Puccio taking her second WC gold at Vail
To the delight of the home crowd Alex Puccio and Sean Bailey pulled all the stops out at Vail to take deserved medals. Puccio held her composure on the final bloc to snatch victory and take her second victory in Vail following her success back in 2009. Puccio’s US Teammate Sean Bailey, also climbed very well beating US boulder champion Nathan Coleman and other renowned blocmiesters to take his first every world cup medal.
However, Team Japan hoovered up all the remaining medal places with Rei Sugimoto and Tomoa Narasaki taking gold and bronze respectively in the men’s whilst Miho Nonaka and Akiyo Noguchi took silver and bronze respectively in the women’s event.
Shauna Coxsey and Leah Crane finished in seventh and 20th respectively whilst in the men’s Aidan Roberts was the highest placed GB male in 19th.
With six of the 2018 features now completed the points table show that it’s all pretty much neck and neck between Jernej Kruder (400pts) and Tomoa Narasaki (396pts) for first and second with Rei Sugimoto trailing on 322 pts. Meranwhile over in the women’s event things are equally tight at the top with Miho Nonaka (500pts) and Akiyo Noguchi (495pts) leading Fanny Gilbert on 305 points. Shauna Coxsey trails in seventh place with 174 points.
Watch the highlights from Vail below…