First qualifiers for Sport Climbing Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020

Despite Lead, Boulder and Speed already having taken place last week during the Climbing World Championship in Hachioji, the drama was far from over in Japan as the top 20 athletes competed yesterday and today in the Combined format. Apart from providing another shot at medals, this intense one-day mix of Lead, Boulder and Speed is seen by the athletes as being the most important event of all as it provides the first tickets to sport climbing’s first-ever Olympic Games, scheduled to take place in Tokyo 2020.

The top 8 competitors qualified for the Combined finals that will take place in Hachioji on Tuesday (Female) and on Wednesday (Male). These, interestingly, include 4 Japanese men and 4 Japanese women; according to the rules, only a maximum of 2 athletes per country may qualify and it is the next highest non-Japanese athlete therefore that qualifies for Tokyo 2020. In practice this means that, with only 7 tickets up for grabs (plus an extra one for the host nation), all non-Japanese athletes in the top 8 combined ranking and the next 2 non-Japanese athletes have automatically qualified for Tokyo 2020. Regardless of the outcome of the Combined finals scheduled for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, which are now all-important to decide the Japanese slots. In short: Alexander Megos, Jakob Schubert, Rishat Khaibullin, Mickael Mawem, Ludovico Fossali and Sean McColl for the Men, and Shauna Coxsey, Janja Garnbret, Petra Klingler, Aleksandra Miroslaw, Brooke Raboutou, Jessica Pilz for the Women have all qualfied for the Olympics.

Technicalities aside, the biggest surprise in the intense Combined qualifiers was without a shadow of doubt one the biggest contenders for the Olympic ticket Adam Ondra failing to make it to the final. After a terrible performance in Speed and an underpar performance in Boulder, the Czech climber easily cruised up the Lead route hoping to make amends, until his foot slipped, inexplicably, as he moved into provisional third place. With plenty more in store, this was a heartbreaking moment, nevertheless it seemed enough to qualify for the Olympics. But a short while later the judges deemed he had touched a bolt with his foot low down during the Lead competition and consequently penalised him into 19th place. His hopes of competing it the Olympics, along with those of all the other athletes who failed to qualify this time round, will now be put on hold until the next opportunity arises, namely at the Combined Qualifier in Toulouse, France at the end of November.

Combined World Championship
WOMEN, Lead x Speed x Boulder
1 Shauna Coxsey GBR 3 x 14 x 1 = 42
2 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 2 x 10 x 4 = 80
3 Janja Garnbret SLO 8 x 7 x 2 = 112
4 Petra Klingler SUI 12 x 8 x 3 = 288
5 Ai Mori JPN 1 x 18 x 16 = 288
6 Futaba Ito JPN 15 x 4 x 5 = 300
7 Aleksandra Miroslaw POL 20 x 1 x 19 = 390
8 Miho Nonaka JPN 14 x 5 x 6 = 420
9 Brooke Raboutou USA 7 x 6 x 10 = 420
10 Jessica Pilz AUT 6 x 11 x 7 = 462
11 Anouck Jaubert FRA 18 x 2 x 17 = 612
12 Julia Chanourdie FRA 11 x 9 x 8 = 792
13 Chaehyun Seo KOR 5 x 16 x 13 = 1040
14 Mia Krampl SLO 4 x 19 x 14 = 1064
15 Di Niu CHN 19 x 3 x 19 = 1111.5
16 Vita Lukan SLO 9 x 20 x 9 = 1620
17 Lucka Rakovec SLO 10 x 15 x 12 = 1800
18 Alannah Yip CAN 16 x 12 x 11 = 2112
19 Nanako Kura JPN 17 x 13 x 15 = 3315
20 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR 13 x 17 x 18 = 3978

MEN, Lead x Speed x Boulder
1 Alexander Megos GER 1 x 17 x 1 = 17
2 Jakob Schubert AUT 2 x 15 x 2 = 60
3 Tomoa Narasaki JPN 7 x 4 x 4 = 112
4 Kokoro Fujii JPN 5 x 5 x 7 = 175
5 Kai Harada JPN 13 x 6 x 3 = 234
6 Rishat Khaibullin KAZ 16 x 1 x 17 = 272
7 Meichi Narasaki JPN 10 x 8 x 5 = 400
8 Mickael Mawem FRA 18 x 3 x 8 = 432
9 Ludovico Fossali ITA 20 x 2 x 20 = 800
10 Sean Mccoll CAN 3 x 18 x 15 = 810
11 Yannick Flohé GER 4 x 16 x 14 = 896
12 Nathaniel Coleman USA 8 x 10 x 12 = 960
13 Rudolph Ruana USA 6 x 12 x 18 = 1296
14 Michael Piccolruaz ITA 15 x 7 x 13 = 1365
15 Keita Dohi JPN 15 x 11 x 11 = 1452
16 Jernej Kruder SLO 14 x 13 x 9 = 1638
17 Jan Hojer GER 11 x 19 x 10 = 2090
18 Adam Ondra CZE 19 x 20 x 6 = 2280
19 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 9 x 14 x 19 = 2394
20 Jongwon Chon KOR 17 x 9 x 16 = 2448