Ramón: They were boulders, I have to train more on various walls as the French; Sandrine: The routes suited me, because I rather boulder, Prague from Charles Bridges was beautiful,  I’ll read CzechClimbing.com; Tomas: The surety was a mistake, now I want more rocks. Read how we talk with the best climbers on the Prague World Cup.

Ramón Julián Puigblanque

The climbs in Prague were hard. The routes mainly the final one were short, difficult, with small holds, such boulders. According to him, the Czech favorite Tomas Mrazek was under the pressure of home public who expected his victory. Ramon Julian is a slight, jovial, sympathetic fellow; he looks unpretending and with the will answered all my curios questions immediately after the final.


Ramón is standing for me in front of the banner of www.Lezec.cz (the Czech version of www.CzechClimbing.com

He did not speak English, so he called for a Spanish interpreter from his group. Ramón is Catalonian from Barcelona region and his mother language is Catalonian. His is 21 a he said the he is 160 cm tall. He explained to me the problematic Iberian names. His first name, like George, is Ramon, his family name, like Bush, is Julian. Puigblanque is the name after his mother. His colleague Patxi Usobiaga (the second best from Spanish team) is Basque and his mother tongue is this ancient language.


Ramón gives an autograph to Silva Rajfova (probably the best Czech female junior in difficulty climbing)

Ramon was in Prague the first time and they had no time for sightseeing of the downtown. On Monday morning the Spaniards were going to leave. Before morning they yet wanted to try the final routes on the Ruzyne indoor wall in Prague.

The coach of the Spanish girls, who interpreted the interview, Daniel Aritja told me that the whole Spanish group was going to travel to Germany on Monday to a new climbing wall that had just been opened by the brothers Bindhammers. The Spanish competitors now, according to the example of the French, want to focus on training on various European walls and profiles, not only at home, and weren’t surprised e.g. by some small wall like the one in Prague.
The guys from the Spanish team climb even on the outdoor rocks a lot, Daniel Aritja (who is from Toledo and trains a woman competitor Eva Elez) confirmed me.
Ramon btw is famous by this year (March) success in climbing of one of the world’s hardest routes La Rambla extension (9a+). And as before Ramon explained, its name “La Rambla is simply La Rambla.”

Sandrine Levet

Routes in Prague, mainly the final one, were convenient for her.  They were short with the hard boulders on small holds, which fit her because she is a boulderer, as she explained to me. The nice blond haired French girl but learned only at the interview after the competition that the fore-runners of the routes on the Prague World Cup were boulder specialists Andrej Chrastina and Jiri Pribil from Prague bouldering center Boulder Bar, about its existence she did not know yet.


Sandrine at the final route

She was in Prague first time, but they arrived on Wednesday already so she had a possibility to look over the historical downtown. They were at the Castle, walked across the Charles Bridge and looked into the Old Town. She liked the city a lot. Sandrine Levet  was born in 1982 and she is from Aix-en-Provence and except for Buoux she likes climbing in Calanques on the sea cost by Marseille. Sandrine spoke English and was very happy to speak about anything. She did not mind at all that I addressed her just at the moment she took the price money (2100 EUR)!


Sandrine is just taking the price money

She was quite interested by the web pages of Lezec.cz and its new English version CzechClimbing.com I showed her.  She wrote down the web address so she could look at it.  My friend Hop from the web CzechClimbing.com and I nearly arranged a meeting with her in Provence but in the end we spoke about something else because we both have serious and permanent relations in the Czech Republic.


Sandrine has just written the addresse of www.lezec.cz (CzechClimbing.com) and is establishing a friendship with Hop (a co-founder of Lezec.cz)


Tomáš Mrázek

To his detriment he told me immediately after the competition that he “climbed too much for the surety” and in one place it was a fatal mistake, because there he “had to jump”.  Otherwise, he felt extraordinary fit (what he proved in the quarter-final and semifinal which he won). He accepted that the pressure of the home environment (whom he promised the victory) had also an influence.
That was confirmed by one of the fore-runners Andrej Chrastina. According to him Tomas Mrazek seemed to be climbing too much for surety and that he was nervous from the home public audience.
According to the member of Jury Pavel Rajf, Thomas seemed to be nervous from the beginning of the final route. He saw that Tomas had difficulties with clipping the first quick draws. (Judge for yourself according to the video).


Tomas is concerned during the preview of the final route

About his next steps, Tomas Mrazek told me that he did not know yet but probably he would attend other competitions more. He did not know yet where he would start but he is intending to climb more on outdoor rocks.