Jain Kim and Stefano Ghisolfi colossal at Kranj

Stefano Ghisolfi simply colossal at Kranj. Last night the 25-year-old Italian won the fifth stage of the Lead Climbing World Cup 2018, beating everyone by claiming the only top on the men’s route. Ghisolfi's victory came about after an excellent and extremely difficult semifinal in which he placed provisional second, just one hold behind new World Champion Jakob Schubert, in which some of the world’s best such as Romain Desgranges and Domen Skofic failed to progress to the decisive round, and in which Francesco Vettorata and Marcello Bombardi both climbed superbly. Last year this Italian trio had qualified for the Kranj finals and while Vettorata lost his bearings through the roof to finish 6th and Bombardi narrowly missed out on the podium finihsing 4th, Ghisolfi powered to the top, even taking the time to chalk up on the final sloper before clipping the anchor. At this point only Schubert could have stolen the show but after a somewhat unusual shaky start he fought his way to the penultimate hold. Third place went to Japan’s Masahiro Higuchi.

The women's competition was won by Jain Kim who steered her way gracefully through the intensely powerful moves. The South Korean had proven she was on form by producing the
only top in the Semis, and even though she failed to reach the last hold in the finals, she climbed 12 moves higher that crowd-favourite Janja Garnbret who finished second. Austria’s Hannah Schubert, Jakob's sister, placed third to win a medal for the first time in her career after having fallen off the same hold as Garnbret and being separated on countback.

With this victory Ghisolfi narrows the gap between him and Schubert. The Austrian is currently leading the provisional ranking with a 30-point lead as the Lead World Cup moves into its last two stages in China.


1 Jain Kim KOR 41
2 Janja Garnbret SLO 34+
3 Hannah Schubert AUT 34+
4 Jessica Pilz AUT 30
5 Katharina Posch AUT 27+
6 Natsumi Hirano JPN 13+
7 Katherine Choong SUI 13+
8 Mina Markovic SLO 13+
9 Mei Kotake JPN
10 Mia Krampl SLO
11 Manon Hily FRA
12 Tjasa Kalan SLO
13 Julia Fiser AUT
14 Lana Skusek SLO
15 Heloïse Doumont BEL
16 Molly Thompson-Smith GBR
17 Hélène Janicot FRA
18 Anne-Sophie Koller SUI
19 Katja Kadic SLO
20 Vita Lukan SLO
21 Miho Nonaka JPN
22 Iva Vejmolova CZE
23 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR
24 Lucka Rakovec SLO
25 Maëlys Agrapart FRA
26 Christine Schranz AUT
27 Vanda Michalkova SVK
27 Aya Onoe JPN
29 Michelle Hulliger SUI
30 Tjasa Slemensek SLO
31 Eliska Adamovska CZE
31 Tina Johnsen Hafsaas NOR
33 Yuki Hiroshige JPN
34 Urska Repusic SLO
34 Nikki Van Bergen NED
36 Chloe Caulier BEL
37 Joanna Neame GBR
38 Silvia Cassol ITA
39 Lenka Slezakova CZE
40 Eliska Novotna CZE
41 Rebecca Frangos CAN
41 Mariia Musienko RUS
41 Emma Palmer USA
44 Leonie Lochner GER
45 Sabina Vecerova CZE
46 Antonia Valenzuela CHI
47 Lucinda Ann Stirling AUS

1 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA Top
2 Jakob Schubert AUT 49+
3 Masahiro Higuchi JPN 43+
4 Marcello Bombardi ITA 43+
5 Sean Mccoll CAN 40+
6 Francesco Vettorata ITA 36
7 Yuki Hada JPN 28+
8 Kokoro Fujii JPN 28
9 William Bosi GBR
10 Kai Harada JPN
11 Fedir Samoilov UKR
12 Domen Skofic SLO
13 Taisei Homma JPN
14 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
15 Minoru Nakano JPN
16 James Pope GBR
17 David Firnenburg GER
18 Jakub Konecny CZE
19 Thomas Joannes FRA
20 Romain Desgranges FRA
21 Max Rudigier AUT
22 Taito Nakagami JPN
23 Hidemasa Nishida JPN
24 Hanwool Kim KOR
25 Sascha Lehmann SUI
26 Sebastian Halenke GER
27 Hannes Puman SWE
28 Georg Parma AUT
29 Hamish Mcarthur GBR
30 Mathias Posch AUT
31 Andoni Esparta Frade ESP
32 Matthias Schiestl AUT
33 Martin Bergant SLO
34 Sébastien Berthe BEL
35 Klemen Novak SLO
36 Mark Brand NED
37 Lars Hoffmann GER
37 Milan Preskar SLO
39 Louis Gundolf AUT
40 Max Kleesattel GER
41 Aleksei Shchervianin RUS
42 Ziga Zajc SLO
43 Luka Potocar SLO
44 Ruben Firnenburg GER
45 Vojtech Trojan CZE
46 Kieran Forrest GBR
47 Sven Lempereur BEL
48 Ronny Escobar CHI
49 Eneko Carretero Cruz ESP
50 Stefan Scherz AUT
51 Benjamin Ayala CHI
52 Rafael Coronado LUX
53 Vadim Malshchukov RUS
54 Love Ymer Alber SWE
55 Tomas Binter CZE
56 Guillem Monsech Gasca ESP
57 Josh Levin USA
58 Simon Potucek CZE
59 Benjamin Vargas CHI
60 Stepan Potucek CZE
61 Martin Tekles GER