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” .
