IFSC Climbing World Cup Toronto 2014: Noguchi and Glairon Mondet top podium

This Saturday and Sunday, May 31-June 1, the 2014 IFSC Boulder World Cup Series hopped across the Atlantic to Hamilton, a small city outside of Toronto, Canada. The second half of the Boulder season started off with a bang with a surprise win by France's Guillaume Glairon Mondet and a long-awaited gold for Japan's Akiyo Noguchi.

IFSC Climbing World Cup Toronto 2014: Shauna Coxsey, Akiyo Noguchi, Alex Puccio (c) Heiko Wilhelm While our IFSC athletes missed out on the spectacular colors of fall in Toronto, but they certainly put on a hardto-beat show. Fresh from a two-week break, the world's best boulderers really shook up the rankings!

New faces atop the podium

With 2013 Toronto winners, Austria's Anna Stöhr and Kilian Fischhuber, missing the finals by a few spots, this year's finals promised to be suspenseful, and it did not disappoint. On the men's side, Guillaume Glairon Mondet of France topped the podium with three tops, and Germany's Jan Hojer was right behind him with only one more attempt for his three tops.Rounding out the podium was Canada's Sean McColl with two tops, securing bronze in front of his home crowd. New to the finals this week was Korea's Jongwon Chon, who finished in 5th in a great showing.

In the women's field, things were looking pretty even coming into the fourth boulder, with five women having completed all three boulders. The fourth boulder proved to be a real separator, with only the top three women managing to top. Japan's Akiyo Noguchi took gold with a near perfect record of 4 tops in both the finals and semis.

Great Britian's Shauna Coxsey took silver, and USA's Alex Puccio made it onto the podium for the first time this season. The youngest climbers in the finals, Japan's Miho Nonaka and Julija Kruder of Slovenia, at just 16 and 17 years old, stood out as rising stars to watch in the future! IFSC Climbing World Cup Toronto 2014: Katharina Saurwein (c) Heiko Wilhelm

Next stop: Vail (USA)

Vail, Colorado (USA) and its Mountain Games Festival will host the second North American 2014 IFSC Boulder World Cup, June 6-7, 2014. Home to the third largest ski mountain in North America, Vail has become a mecca for mountain sports enthusiasts.The Vail Mountain Games are a spectacular showcase for sport climbing, and with many strong American climbers that don't attend World Cups regularly competing, there should be some great surprises! A free Cold War Kids concert follows the competition for athletes and spectators alike!

More information on the event, as well as live streaming of the semi-finals and finals www.ifsc-climbing.org

As always, we are present on Twitter during competitions, so reach out with the hashtag #IFSCwc. Women Men  

QuelleMeriwether Burruss (IFSC), Fotos: Heiko Wilhelm