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UIAA CLIMBING WORLD CUP


SPEED ROCK
VALLE DI DAONE 2006

by Alessandro Togni

 

"Speed Rock is simply a great event. To me it is like the competition held in Kitzbuhel, on the Streif", says Susi Knabl, the Austrian referee sent by the International Council for Competition Climbing, a few days after having attended the 5th edition of Speed Rock. The most breathtaking, challenging, stunning speed climbing competition, the only Italian date in the World Cup schedule.
The perpendicular wall of the Enel dam of Bissina in Val di Daone, even with its 50 years of age, still represents a great example of technology and progress. The speed and the self-assurance with which the athletes, true “rocket men”, face the route, up to 40 metres from the ground, give evidence of extraordinary abilities. They throwing themselves up high, as if they were in a contemporary dance performance, and they seem to cancel the force of gravity. A vertical wall, covered here and there, by small handholds where body energies, in the shortest fraction of time, must be directed into fingers, then arms, then muscles of the chest, to later arrive into the legs. Strength, power, coordination, instinct and rapid spirit of observation: all these are ingredients for speed. Qualifications, qualifying heats, quarterfinals, semi-finals and finals. The tension for the result get at its highest when the stronger athletes challenge one another to win; the audience also, waiting for the last duel, feel the exact same emotions. How couldn't you possibly remain breathless, while following those fit, explosive and unique movements performed by Tomasz Oleksy, the Polish record-holder, as he broke the record in 2005 with his incredible time of 16 seconds and 84 cent. How could you not be struck by the frenzy of the repeated and punctual gestures of the Indonesian record woman Etti Hendravati (26”, 93) who climbs up with the natural spontaneity above the wall of cement. And, what about Olena Riepko, from Ucraine, world champion who, plunging into the height of Bissina wall is able to reach the bell of the finish-line as the first athlete, obtaining the most prestigious medal, the golden one, in the competition she judges “the most wonderful in the whole world” .


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