The 2024 IQU World Cup will be held from April 12 to 14 in Wujiang Fenhu Station.
A total of 236 of the world's best athletes from 37 countries and regions will compete to determine four gold medals in speed and difficulty.
After last year's World Climbing Championships and the Continental Championships decided some of the quota places for the Paris Olympics, the two Olympic qualification series in Shanghai and Budapest in May and June will be the last chance for climbers to compete for Olympic tickets.
As the most important warm-up tournament before the Olympic Qualifying Tournament, this World Cup attracts many top players. Japan's An Le Sakuto and Slovenia's Gambret, who are currently ranked No. 1 in the world in the men's and women's difficulty events, China's Wu Peng and Poland's Miloslav, who are currently ranked first in the men's and women's speed events, have all registered. Indonesia's Leonardo, the men's world record holder in the speed event, will also be in action.
As the host, the Chinese climbing team did its best, sending a total of 40 players to participate. Among them are Long Jinbao, Deng Lijuan and Zhang Yuetong, three players who have already qualified for the Paris Olympics, as well as 10 athletes who are challenging for Olympic qualification. In addition to Wu Peng, Wang Xinshang, Zhang Liang and Long Jianguo will compete in the men's speed event, while Niu Di, Zhang Shaoqin, Zhou Yafei and Wang Shengyan in the women's speed event, as well as Luo Zhilu, a female athlete in the biathlon, will participate.
Li Guowei, director of the Rock Climbing Department of the Mountaineering Management Center of the General Administration of Sports of China, said that with the addition of rock climbing to the Olympic family, the development of rock climbing in China has entered the fast lane, and the level of competition has also improved rapidly.
"The government attaches great importance to the climbing project, and has given us great support in terms of policy and financial investment. At the same time, since 2017, we have promoted the rapid development of rock climbing competition through cross-discipline selection and the way of going out and inviting in. He introduced that Long Jinbao and Deng Lijuan, who have qualified for the Olympic Games, stood out from the cross-discipline selection and grew into the world's top players in just five years, and have the strength to hit the gold medal in the Olympic Games.
"At the Olympics, our goal is to win a gold medal in the speed event and a medal in the all-around event. Looking forward to this summer's trip to Paris, Li Guowei admitted that he has set corresponding goals for the two projects, and the "road map" to achieve the goals has also been clearly placed in front of the Chinese team.
"First of all, we have to warm up with training in the two World Cups, including this Wujiang World Cup, which is an opportunity for our national team to find its competitive state. Then, we need to fight for more places in the Olympic Qualification Tournament. Li Guowei said that striving for more Olympic quotas is the most important preparation task at the moment, "Only on this basis can we achieve our goals, and we are full of confidence in this." ”
This competition is the ninth time that the International Climbing Federation World Cup Climbing Championship has been held in Wujiang Fenhu. In the past ten years, Fenhu has witnessed the gradual development of rock climbing from a niche sport to the Olympic stage, and has also witnessed the gradual development of rock climbing in China, making positive contributions to the development of rock climbing in China and the world.
Text: Reporter of this newspaper / Gu Miao
Photo: Courtesy of the Organizing Committee, Visual China
Editor: Chen Haixiang