The World University Championship Sport Climbing was held in the city of Innsbruck (Austria) from June 13 to 17, 2022. More than 150 athletes from 21 countries took part in it - from Australia to the USA and Japan. Despite the war going on in Ukraine, our athletes also showed off their skills at the championship.
Participants competed for six sets of awards, 18 medals in total, 11 of which were won by athletes from Japan, climbers from Austria, Poland and the USA won 2 medals, and the Italian sportsman got one.
The Championship was the first international tournament for Anastasia Tyshchenko, a 2nd year student of TEF (group TM-01) of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, a member of the Ukrainian climbing team. She qualified without any problems and reached the semi-finals in one of the disciplines of Sport Climbing, which is really good as a first step. Feeling somewhat unwell only prevented her from showing the maximum performance.
From the coaching staff, our team's delegation included the head of the KPISkalaClimbingTeam Yevhen Kozak. He shared his impressions of the trip:
"Representatives of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education and the rectorate of the University of Innsbruck were present at the championship, because it was a city quite full of students. The official meetings were held in an interesting modern format. In general, it was a cool event with a high level of organization.
The championship is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research of Austria, whose leaders are concerned with the development of climbing and sports in general, because this is the health of the nation.
It was nice to have an informal talk with the vice-rector of the University of Innsbruck. A great emphasis in Austria is laid on the development of students as individuals, the importance of sports activity in life, etc. And she also talked about cooperation with some Ukrainian universities.
In general, the experience of different countries is interesting... Negotiations are still ongoing and climbing may be included into the program of the World or European Universities Games next year. And thus, this athletic discipline will also be added to the Ukrainian Universities Games. This will be a jump-start for the development of rock climbing among students.
We will continue training with students at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. We see that the number of students in the club is constantly increasing.
In two years (because these competitions are held once every two years), the World University Championship Sport Climbing is to be held in Slovenia. We will also try to get there, and maybe even increase the representation of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in the national team of Ukraine."
The championship takes place in Innsbruck, Austria from June 13 to 17. Students from 21 countries gathered for the competition.
Ukraine is represented by a team of 16 athletes, including 2nd year student of TEF Anastasia Tyshchenko. Today she competed in Lead Semifinals for getting into the finals. Tomorrow Boulder Semifinals will take place.
The National Ukrainian Mountaineering and Climbing Federation elected Yevhen Kozak, a graduate from Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and the head of KPISkalaClimbingTeam, as the coach of the Ukrainian national team and the team's official representative.