Adam Ondra and Mina Markovic win in Kranj

For the last 19 years Kranj in Slovenia has come to mean great tradition: it is the last stage of the Lead World Cup and, as such, it adds the finishing touches to the overall rankings after a long competition season. While the overall 2014 World Cup winners had already been decreed - Austria's Jakob Schubert and South Korea's Kim Jain thanks to their unreachable advantage they'd created in the previous competitions – the fight was still on for overall silver and bronze. These were awarded in the dying minutes of the competition, that saw Adam Ondra and home athlete Mina Markovic dominate this final stage. Expectations were high for both after their great semi-final performances and, after coming out of isolation last, they both managed to beat all others by a considerable margin.

In the intense men's competition Sean McColl fell six holds lower than Ondra to finish second, one hold more than Sachi Amma who placed third. Young home athlete Domen Skofic placed an excellent 4th, ahead of Jakob Schubert and Stefano Ghisolfi, 6th, who confirmed yet again that he has now well and truly entered the ranks of the strongest in the world. 2014 has been an important year for the Italian, in particular thanks to his sensational first stage victory in China that crowned a long, long dream. These two were followed by Frenchman Romain Desgranges - another athlete who rarely fails to qualify for the finals - and Ramón Julien Puigblanque, 8th after having been stopped low down on a two-handed dyno.

In the women's competition Mina Markovic withstood the pressure to beat stiff competition in the form of overall 2014 winner Jain Kim and Japan's Akiyo Noguchi, 2nd and 3rd respectively. They were followed by the two Austrians Jessica Pilz and Katharina Posch, Japan's Yuka Kobayashi, the Belgian (revelation of the year) Anak Verhoeven and the other expert Slovenian competitor, Maja Vidmar, 4th - 6th respectively.

These results obviously directly affected the overall 2014 standings: Sean McColl and Mina Markovic won silver, while bronze went to Magdalena Röck and Adam Ondra. It is worth mentioning that, for Ondra, 2014 has been an an unprecedented year in the entire history of sport climbing competitions: the Czech climber managed to become both Bouldering World Champion and Lead World Champion in the same season, a feat no one has ever managed before and that will prove difficult to match in the future. It is also worth glancing briefly at the Combined ranking, won by Sean McColl and Akiyo Noguchi; this demonstrates their extraordinary ability across the entire competition spectrum as it includes the results from the disciplines Lead, Boulder and Speed.


Men Climbing Worldcup (L) - Kranj (SLO) 2014
Maschile
1 Adam Ondra CZE 44+
2 Sean Mccoll CAN 38
3 Sachi Amma JPN 37+
4 Domen Skofic SLO 33+
5 Jakob Schubert AUT 32+
6 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 32+
7 Romain Desgranges FRA 30+
8 Ramón Julian Puigblanque ESP 17+

Women
1 Mina Markovic SLO 46+
2 Jain Kim KOR 42+
3 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 36
4 Jessica Pilz AUT 31+
5 Katharina Posch AUT 28
6 Yuka Kobayashi JPN 27+
7 Anak Verhoeven BEL 24+
8 Maja Vidmar SLO 24

Lead World Cup 2014 - final results
Men
1 Jakob Schubert AUT 516.00
2 Sean Mccoll CAN 440.00
3 Adam Ondra CZE 428.00
4 Romain Desgranges FRA 414.00
5 Domen Skofic SLO 410.00
6 Ramón Julian Puigblanque ESP 346.00
7 Sachi Amma JPN 345.00
8 Gautier Supper FRA 315.00
9 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 313.00
10 Magnus Midtboe NOR 252.00
11 Akito Matsushima JPN 217.00
12 Hyunbin Min KOR 142.00
13 Mario Lechner AUT 123.00
14 Manuel Romain FRA 113.00
15 Thomas Ballet FRA 111.00
16 Elan Jonasmcrae CAN 108.00
16 Urban Primozic SLO 108.00
18 Sebastian Halenke GER 105.00
19 Francesco Vettorata ITA 98.00
20 Keichiro Korenaga JPN 95.00

Women
1 Jain Kim KOR 607.00
2 Mina Markovic SLO 547.00
3 Magdalena Röck AUT 501.00
4 Anak Verhoeven BEL 447.00
5 Hélène Janicot FRA 324.00
6 Katharina Posch AUT 281.00
7 Maja Vidmar SLO 265.00
8 Dinara Fakhritdinova RUS 237.00
9 Yuka Kobayashi JPN 236.00
10 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 210.00
11 Risa Ota JPN 205.00
12 Charlotte Durif FRA 190.00
13 Jessica Pilz AUT 168.00
14 Nikki Van Bergen NED 149.00
15 Christine Schranz AUT 142.00
16 Momoka Oda JPN 131.00
17 Barbara Bacher AUT 117.00
18 Evgeniya Malamid RUS 110.00
19 Aya Onoe JPN 103.00
20 Mathilde Becerra FRA 101.00