A fairly quiet week of action, with the UCI World Tour ending and action in Sport Climbing and Taekwondo:
● CYCLING ● UCI World Tour 2019 ends in China with GREE-Tour of Guangxi
The third Tour of Guangxi in China is on this week and will conclude the 2019 UCI World Tour that started in Australia back in January.
Most of the big names on tour are not in this race and the seasonal standings are:
1. 4,635.28 Primoz Roglic (SLO)
2. 3,569.95 Julian Alaphilippe (FRA)
3. 3,472.50 Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)
4. 3,346.75 Egal Bernal (COL)
5. 3,297.00 Alejandro Valverde (ESP)
Bernal is in the race and has had success before, with four prior stage wins in 2017.
Only one prior medalist is back: Austria’s Felix Grosschartner, who was the runner-up in 2018.
There are six stages in this year’s race: two flat stages and four hilly stages, so the sprinters should be happy. Bernal won the first stage held on Thursday, a flat 135.6 km ride our and back from Beihai. Look for results here.
● SPORT CLIMBING ● Speed title on the line in Xiamen
The next-to-last IFSC World Cup comes this weekend in Xiamen (CHN), with the final competition in Speed on 19 October and the next-to-last Lead event on 20 October.
With the Speed title on the line, the current standings:
● Men:
1. 300 Bassa Mawem (FRA) ~ Won in Moscow, second in Wujiang
2. 271 Vladislav Deulin (RUS) ~ Second in Moscow, third in Chamonix
3. 260 Dmitrii Timofeev (RUS) ~ Won in Wujiang, second in Villars
4. 253 Alfian Muhammad (INA) ~ Won at Chongqing and Chamonix
5. 197 Reza Alipour (IRI)
● Women:
1. 400 YiLing Song (CHN) ~ Won at Moscow, Chongqing and Chamonix
2. 320 Anouck Jaubert (FRA) ~ Won in Villars, second in Moscow
3. 261 Elizaveta Ivanova (RUS) ~ Second at Chamonix
4. 247 Aries Susanti Rahayu (INA) ~ Second at Wujiang
5. 197 Anna Tsyganova (RUS)
Defending champ Mawem is in a good position, but with scoring of 100-80-65-55-51 and on down from there, he is not safe. Also, climbers drop their lowest score of the season, so only five count.
Among the women, defending champ Jaubert has a maximum score of 400 with a win, so Song would have to finish 17th or lower to lose the women’s title.
In Lead:
● Men:
1. 200 Adam Ondra (CZE) ~ World Champion
2. 165 Alexander Megos (GER) ~ World Championships silver medalist
3. 159 Sean McColl (CAN)
4. 152 Sascha Lehmann (SUI)
5. 134 Kai Harada (JPN)
● Women:
1. 380 Chae-Hyun Seo (KOR) ~ Fourth at World Championships
2. 243 Janja Garnbret (SLO) ~ World Champion
3. 180 Mia Krampl (SLO) ~ Worlds silver medalist
4. 179 Lucka Rakovec (SLO)
5. 176 Jessica Pilz (AUT)
Ondra and Megos were 1-2 at Worlds and are in a struggle for the seasonal title. Seo, who had a disappointing Worlds, would have to collapse in both of the remaining World Cups to allow Garnbret to win another title.
Look for results here.
● TAEKWONDO ● Five no. 1-ranked fighters in first Grand Prix in Bulgaria
The third World Taekwondo Grand Prix is in Bulgaria for the first time ever, in Sofia. The top seeds (with world ranking):
● Men:
58 kg: 1. Tae-hun Kim (KOR)
68 kg: 1. Dae-hoon Lee (KOR)
80 kg: 4. Nikita Rafalovich (UZB)
+80 kg: 2. Kyo-Don In (KOR)
● Women:
49 kg: 2. So-Hui Kim (KOR)
57 kg: 1. Jade Jones (GBR)
67 kg: 1. Nur Tatar Askari (TUR)
+67 kg: 1. Bianca Walkden (GBR)
Prize money is available: $5,000-3,000-1,000 for the top three places. Look for results here.
