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From IFSC-Climbing.org

The fourth IFSC Lead World Cup of the 2021 season closed tonight at the Parc Des Sports in Briançon, France, where 5,000 Sport Climbing fans braved the rain and witnessed Stefano Ghisolfi’s and Eliska Adamovska’s golden moments.

The Italian 28-year-old athlete won the sixth World Cup gold medal of his fantastic career, finally jumping back on the highest step of the podium, almost three years after his last victory – dated September 2018 in Kranj, Slovenia.

After placing first in yesterday’s semi-final, Ghisolfi was the last climber to enter the stage and face the final route, scoring 42+ and finishing ahead of Dmitrii Fakirianov of Russia and Martin Stranik of the Czech Republic, respectively second with 39+, and third with 37+.

The men’s Lead final complete results are available here.

In the women’s closing event of the night, first-time final participant Eliska Adamovska of the Czech Republic upset the leader of this year’s Boulder and Lead world rankings – United States’ Natalia Grossman – falling after securing hold number 36 and finding a well-deserved pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Grossman, with 35+, eventually won silver, while Slovenia’s Vita Lukan completed the podium in third position, with 29.

The women’s Lead event full results are available here.

From IFSC-Climbing.org

The third Lead World Cup of the 2021 season concluded this evening in Chamonix, France, where Italy’s Laura Rogora and the United States’ Sean Bailey achieved first place in the women’s and men’s finals.

The USA’s Sean Bailey earned his second consecutive Lead World Cup gold medal in the men’s final after also taking the win in Villars, Switzerland, earlier this month. A podium top this evening takes Bailey’s 2021 gold medal count to three, with the 25-year-old additionally picking up gold on home soil in Salt Lake City, USA, in the third Boulder World Cup of the season.

Following Bailey – who achieved a score of 34+ – in second place was Italy’s Stefano Ghisolfi, who earned his second silver medal of the season with 32. Ghisolfi also claimed second place at the Lead World Cup in Innsbruck last month. Matching Ghisolfi’s score and completing the men’s podium line-up in was Martin Stranik of the Czech Republic. After scoring lower than Ghisolfi in the semi-final, Stranik ended the competition in third place.

In the women’s final, with the only top of the night, Italy’s Laura Rogora added a second World Cup gold medal to her collection, having won the sole World Cup of the season last year in Briançon, France. The 20-year-old also won silver at the previous stop of the 2021 World Cup Series tour in Villars, Switzerland.

Achieving second place was the unstoppable Natalia Grossman of the USA, who with 41+, earned her sixth medal of the 2021 season – out of six world cups so far this season! Behind Grossman with 38+ points was Bulgarian Aleksandra Totkova. After making semi-finals in her senior World Cup debut at the IFSC World Cup in Innsbruck, Austria, last month, Totkova progressed to finals in Villars, and bagged her first podium this evening in Chamonix, France. The 16-year-old is certainly an athlete to keep an eye on as her Sport Climbing career continues.

Full results of the women’s event can be found here, and men’s results are here.

Photo by Daniel Gajda

From IFSC-climbing.org

At the end of a weekend consistently affected by variable weather, rain, and humidity, the IFSC World Cup in Villars, Switzerland, concluded with two exciting Lead finals, where Team USA representatives Sean Bailey and Colin Duffy occupied two thirds of the men’s podium, respectively placing first and third.

As none of the eight male participants secured the top hold, Bailey – Boulder gold medalist at this year’s World Cup in Salt Lake City, USA – concluded with 38, and is now the only male climber able to secure the brightest medal in both the Boulder and Lead disciplines. Participating in his first Lead final round ever, Duffy secured the bronze medal with 31+.

The podium was completed by German Olympian Alexander Megos, who finished with 35+ and won the sixth World Cup medal of his career.

A second German finalist, Sebastian Halenke, finished in fourth place with 26.5+; while Alberto Gines Lopez of Spain took fifth with 26.5. France’s first time finalist Paul Janft followed in sixth position with 26, while Japan’s Masahiro Higuchi and Zento Murashita concluded at the bottom of the ranking, taking seventh and eight place with 12 and 11+

The men’s Lead final full results are available here.

In the women’s final, after they both clipped at the top of the route, Slovenian superstar Janja Garnbret prevailed over Italy’s Laura Rogora thanks to her better placement in the semi-final. It is the fourth World Cup gold medal out of five participations in 2021 for Garnbret, who will now pause from competitions to focus on her preparation for the Olympic Games.

Rogora’s silver, on the other hand, is only her second World Cup medal ever, with the first one being a Lead gold she won in Briançon in August 2020 – where she managed to beat Garnbret herself.

The fantastic night of team USA was completed with Natalia Grossman’s bronze medal – the fifth of her season – that she secured with a stunning 42+.

Just outside of the podium, Japan’s Momoko Abe placed fourth with 40+, followed by Slovenia’s Vita Lukan, who placed fifth also with 40+. First-time finalist Aleksandra Totkova of Bulgaria finished in sixth position with 33+; Slovenia’s Lucka Rakovec placed seventh with 17+; and Mia Krampl, the fourth Slovenian climber in the final, finished at the bottom of the ranking, also with 17+.

The women’s Lead final full results are available here.

From TeamUSA.org

Lead climbing tests every part of a climber’s skill set, including technical prowess, strength and, perhaps most of all, endurance.

Soon-to-be Olympian Brooke Raboutou showcased it all on Friday in the women’s final of the IFSC World Cup competition in Innsbruck, Austria.

The 20-year-old from Boulder, Colorado, qualified third in the semifinal earlier in the day to reach her first-ever senior elite final in lead climbing and very nearly made it a title-winning debut. Ascending up the towering wall on an overhanging route that required everything from dynamic leaps to handholds overhead to clinging by just fingertips to tiny pinch holds, Raboutou made it a handful of moves from the top before she fell off. The former youth world champion was sitting in first place, having completed 40 moves, with Japan’s Akiyo Noguchi in second with 33+ moves.

The only climber left was Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret, who’s always a formidable opponent. The multi-time world champion in both lead and combined climbing, Garnbret showed why many consider her to be the best female competition climber in the world by becoming the only one to make it to the top of the route.

Raboutou won silver and Noguchi bronze. All three women will represent their countries in Tokyo.

Sport climbing will make its Olympic debut this summer. The format consists of three separate competitions: speed climbing, lead climbing and bouldering. In lead climbing, athletes clip their ropes into carabiners as they ascend up a vertical wall. The goal is to make it all the way to the top, and the competition is timed.

In bouldering, athletes tackle a series of “problems” that stay lower to the ground and don’t require ropes. Raboutou took third in a pair of bouldering competitions in Utah in the spring. This was the first major lead competition of the season.

In speed climbing, athletes race each other side-by-side to the top on identical courses.

Article courtesy of Karen Price, TeamUSA.org