adidas gathered those fascinated with artificial rock climbing in Tirol’s Oetztal Valley for the new top-class adidas Rockstars invitational contest.

In the super final two current world champions Austrian Anna Stöhr and Russian Dmitry Sharafutdinov were the first to claim the adidas Rockstar title.

47 athletes from 14 countries were at the start to battle in the competition. Only the top six men and women reached the final. Alex Puccio from the USA, currently ranked third in the world, and five-time overall world cup winner Kilian Fischhuber from Austria were the runner-ups. The two Russian athletes Anna Gallyamova and Alexey Rubtsov finished third.

Highlighting the play of words, adidas transformed the climbing competition into a staged performance with live music by the German rock band Orange but Green.

1500 climbing fans from around the world came to look at two competitors that climbed an identical route at the same time on a ‘super boulder’ specifically designed for the event without seeing each other. To win the athletes had to stand with both feet on top of the boulder block and touch a buzzer.

“I am so happy to have won, because Alex climbed a lot better than me before hitting the super boulder”, Anna Stöhr said at the award presentation. “However in the end I was the first to hit the buzzer and it felt great to win in front of such an amazing crowd that showed up here at Area 47.”

“I’m very happy to have won, because adidas Rockstars has been the best competition I’ve ever done in my life so far”, commented Dmitry Sharafutdinov, the winner among men.

adidas also has recently released an app for iPhone with the 3d image recognition software.