Russia's Alexey Dengin, left, was surprisingly knocked out of the semi-final in the men's lead climbing at the Kirov UIAA World Tour stop ©UIAA

Russia’s Alexey Dengin, overall leader in the men's lead event, surprisingly failed to reach tomorrow’s final in the home city of Kirov at the fifth and last stop on the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) Ice Climbing World Tour.

Dengin, whose victory in Cheongsong last month was his third in the last four World Cup competitions, had qualified joint first for today’s semi-finals along with three other Russian climbers.

But he could only finish tenth, two places out of the eight finalists, after scoring 8.212 points.

Dengin’s compatriot Nikolai Kuzovlev qualified first for the final after becoming the only climber to top the route.

Fellow Russians Maksim and Alexey Tomilov were respectively second and fourth, with thrd place going to Canada’s Noah Beek.

South Korea has two finalists in Lee Young Geon and Kwon Young Hye, while Iran’s Mohammadreza Korouyeh Safdarian and a fourth Russian, Aleksei Marshalov, complete the finalists.

Shin Woonseon of South Korea leads the overall standings in the women's lead climbing as the UIAA Ice Climbing tour has its final event of the season in Kirov ©UIAA
Shin Woonseon of South Korea leads the overall standings in the women's lead climbing as the UIAA Ice Climbing tour has its final event of the season in Kirov ©UIAA

Russia’s Maria Tolokonia topped the qualifers in the women’s lead semi-finals ahead of compatriots Ekaterina Vlasova and Maryam Filippova.

Two other Russians have also made the cut – Mariia Edler and Nadezda Gallyamova.

But the two top South Korean women, overall leader Shin Woonseon and Song Han Na Rai, have also made the final eight, along with Marianne Steen of The Netherlands.

Russian favourites Anton Nemov and Nikolai Kuzovlev moved safely through to tomorrow’s speed duel semi-finals.

Extraordinarily, home climbers filled 15 of the 16 qualifying places for the women’s speed semi-finals, headed by Ekaterina Koshcheeva.

The only non-Russian, qualifying 12th, was South Korea’s Song Han Na Rai.