Hidemasa Nishida and Chaehyun Seo superb at Briançon

Route setting with totally unknown variables at 32°C. This was the genesis of the Briançon competition. The intense program in this French town, which included local competitions, the Paraclimbing World Championship followed by the World Cup, meant that the routes for the third stage had to be set three weeks prior to the competition.

At the time no World Cup event had taken place, the circuit would kick off only a week later in Villars, Switzerland, and the basis for our setting was what had taken place last October. In addition, we set in the middle of the June heatwave; hence the totally unknown variables at 32°C.

Having said that, the competition began on Friday 19 July and conditions were excellent. Although some of the world’s best had chosen to skip Briançon, the competition nevertheless mirrored what had happened the previous week in Chamonix in both the men’s and women’s event, and the provisional standings were more or less confirmed.

Although this was certainly the case in the women's semifinal with just one top achieved by Chaehyun Seo, things changed considerably in the men’s semifinal: illustrious victims crashed out including the best after the qualifiers. Without Stefano Ghisolfi, Alexander Megos and Romain Desgranges, picking a favourite for the final win proved difficult.

In the last round the level of the top athletes, we believed, was extremely homogeneous, and we were proven right. The athletes made few mistakes and at the end of the day their results were influenced more by how they managed the physical strain than by different ways of interpreting the route.

In the men's competiton Hidemasa Nishida, the first to start and therefore last in the semis, won. In doing so he confirmed in the most "extreme" manner that on that particular night we had eight possible winners.

The women's final proved somewhat different. It was, undoubtedly, more exciting. French surprise Nina Arthaud competing on her home turf, America’s Ashima Shiraishi who climbed superbly but timed out, the athletes who each battled higher and higher and the crescendo finale with two athletes who managed to top out. The top was reached via a coordinated dyno that, carried out by Janja Garnbret, seemed to confirm the absolute qualities of this highly talented athlete. When the dyno was repeated shortly afterwards by the South Korean, it became clear that the Slovenian now has to deal with an extremely strong, and complete, opponent.

LEAD
Women
1 Chaehyun Seo KOR Top
2 Janja Garnbret SLO Top
3 Natsuki Tanii JPN 41+
4 Mia Krampl SLO 36
5 Ashima Shiraishi USA 36
6 YueTong Zhang CHN 33+
7 Vita Lukan SLO 32+
8 Nina Arthaud FRA 24+
9 Christine Schranz AUT
10 Mei Kotake JPN
11 Natsumi Hirano JPN
12 Mina Markovic SLO
13 Margo Hayes USA
14 Lucka Rakovec SLO
15 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR
16 Molly Thompson-Smith GBR
17 Tjasa Kalan SLO
18 Laura Rogora ITA
19 Katharina Posch AUT
20 Anne-Sophie Koller SUI
21 Julia Fiser AUT
22 Heloïse Doumont BEL
23 Fanny Gibert FRA
24 Julia Chanourdie FRA
25 Claudia Ghisolfi ITA
26 Nolwenn Arc FRA
27 Sol Sa KOR
28 Brooke Raboutou USA
29 Michelle Hulliger SUI
30 Lynn Van Der Meer NED
31 Valentina Aguado ARG
32 Kajsa Rosen SWE
33 Léa Delacquis FRA
34 Yuki Hiroshige JPN
35 Risa Ota JPN
36 Vanda Michalkova SVK
37 Nolwen Berthier FRA
38 Zoé Egli SUI
38 Rebecca Frangos CAN
40 Camille Pouget FRA
41 Tina Johnsen Hafsaas NOR
42 Lan Kim KOR
42 Miu Kurita JPN
44 Kyra Condie USA
45 Lucia Dörffel GER
46 Manon Hily FRA
47 Bréanne Robert FRA
48 Léna Grospiron FRA
49 Oceania Mackenzie AUS
50 Alannah Yip CAN
51 Emily Phillips GBR
52 Sandra Lettner AUT
53 Chloe Caulier BEL
54 Andrea Rojas ECU
55 Sienna Kopf USA
56 Ilaria Scolaris ITA
57 Anouck Jaubert FRA
58 Sofya Yokoyama SUI
59 Rong Jiang CHN
59 Joanna Neame GBR
61 Katherine Choong SUI
62 Maria Benach Zubero ESP
63 Natalia Kalucka POL
64 Rut Monsech Gasca ESP
65 Allison Vest CAN
66 Rhoslyn Frugtniet GBR
67 Indiana Chapman CAN
68 Sophie Buitendyk CAN
69 Käthe Atkins GER
69 Silvia Cassol ITA
71 Leonie Lochner GER
72 Patrycja Chudziak POL
73 RACHELLE De Charmoy RSA
74 Aleksandra Kalucka POL
75 Amanda Speed NZL
76 Lucinda Ann Stirling AUS
77 Sarah Tetzlaff NZL
78 Anna Brozek POL
79 Roxy Perry AUS

Men
1 Hidemasa Nishida JPN 39+
2 Hiroto Shimizu JPN 38+
3 Shuta Tanaka JPN 38+
4 William Bosi GBR 38
5 Sean McColl CAN 38
6 Sean Bailey USA 34+
7 Domen Škofic SLO 34+
8 Marcello Bombardi ITA 34+
9 YuFei Pan CHN
10 Romain Desgranges FRA
11 Yannick Flohé GER
12 Rudolph Ruana USA
13 Sascha Lehmann SUI
14 Nathaniel Coleman USA
15 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA
16 Alexander Megos GER
17 Nao Monchois FRA
18 Max Rudigier AUT
19 Matthias Schiestl AUT
20 Hanwool Kim KOR
21 Keita Dohi JPN
22 Alberto Ginés López ESP
23 Dmitrii Fakiryanov RUS
24 Mikel Asier Linacisoro Molina ESP
25 Hannes Puman SWE
26 Thomas Joannes FRA
27 Martin Bergant SLO
27 Francesco Vettorata ITA
29 Tomoaki Takata JPN
30 Yuki Hada JPN
31 Sam Avezou FRA
31 Dohyun Lee KOR
31 Vladislav Shevchenko RUS
34 Jongwon Chon KOR
35 James Pope GBR
36 Luka Potocar SLO
37 Campbell Harrison AUS
38 Alistair Duval FRA
38 Filip Schenk ITA
40 Paul Jenft FRA
41 Jakub Konecny CZE
42 Leo Avezou FRA
43 Hugo Parmentier FRA
44 Simon Lorenzi BEL
45 Nimrod Marcus ISR
46 Taisei Homma JPN
47 Milan Preskar SLO
47 Danny Valencia ECU
49 Jabee Kim KOR
50 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
51 Jonas Brandenburger GER
52 Tom O'halloran AUS
53 Jan Hojer GER
54 Lucas Uchida CAN
55 Jernej Kruder SLO
56 Jesse Grupper USA
57 Sean Faulkner CAN
58 Philipp Martin GER
59 Zach Galla USA
60 David Barrans GBR
61 Adrien Lemaire FRA
62 Christopher Cosser RSA
63 Mickael Mawem FRA
64 Stefan Scherz AUT
65 Dimitri Vogt SUI
66 Nicolas Collin BEL
67 Mark Brand NED
68 Mischa Radt NED
69 Vojtech Trojan CZE
70 Sven Lempereur BEL
71 Stepan Volf CZE
72 Ronny Escobar CHI
73 Tomas Plevko SVK
74 Mykhayil Tkachuk UKR
75 Ludovico Fossali ITA
76 Carlos Granja ECU
77 Bassa Mawem FRA
77 Guy Mcnamee CAN
79 Hritik Marne IND
80 Benjamin Ayala CHI
81 Javier Cano Blazquez ESP
82 Kindar Mcnamee CAN
83 Emilio Rios CHI
84 Ben Abel AUS
85 Kristoffer Lindbäck SWE
86 Paul Brand NED
87 Marcin Dzienski POL
88 Jan Kriz CZE