Janja Garnbret, Adam Ondra win Chamonix World Cup

Watching Janja Garnbret and Adam Ondra power to victory above the packed square in Chamonix on Sunday night one might have got the impression that nothing much had changed since the last time they stood on top of a Lead podium together. But that was actually way back in August 2019, almost three years ago, when the world was a decidedly different place. Although much has changed since then, one thing remains certain: despite the rise of impressive newcomers, "old guard" Garnbret and Ondra remain the two to beat.

Garnbret claimed her 21st Lead victory in her usual convincing style, topping out at great speed in the far too easy women's final. Laura Rogora fought her way up determinedly to latching the final hold with just seven seconds left on the clock; minutes earlier both Chaehyun Seo and Jessica Pilz had led the way and topped out, too, but unlike the Italian they hadn’t topped out in the Semis, meaning that on countback they settled for third and fourth respectively. For a moment it looked like Rogora might win after her two 4th places this season, but Garnbret wasn’t to be unravelled and the 23-year-old easily netted her third consecutive gold this season alone. Natsuki Tanii placed fifth, Natalia Grossman slipped to sixth from provisional first after the semis, Brooke Raboutou fell off the same hold as her teammate to place seventh, while Slovenia’s Mia Krampl completed the lineup and placed 8th.

The men’s final - lacking the likes of 2021 series winner Stefano Ghisolfi and 3 times World Cup winner Jakob Schubert due to Covid - got off to an nail-biting start a few minutes later with Homma Taisei immediately putting in a blistering performance and demonstrating that last weekend’s Villars victory was no flash in the pan. He climbed with complete composure to the penultimate hold but then failed to stick the dyno for the top, making everyone wonder whether the route was far too easy. But it wasn’t, in the slightest, and everyone fell significantly lower. Everyone that is, except for Adam Ondra who after a long break from competitions after his failed Olympic bid raced his way to the top in his hallmark style. He was perhaps too quick for his own good though, because with plenty of time still left on the clock, a breather before the final dyno might not have been a bad thing since like Taisei he failed to stick the last hold. Up until that point the Czech had been in total command, now all of a sudden last-out Sean Bailey had the chance to steal the show. The American failed to make significant headway though and dropped off 10 moves lower, from the same hold as Luka Potocar and Yannick Flohé; the trio were separated on their scores from previous rounds and time taken to complete their attempt. Competing in their first senior World Cup final, Sam Avezou and Hamish McArthur placed sixth and seventh respectively, ahead of Sascha Lehmann eighth. Nine male athletes competed in the final as opposed to the usual eight, due to tied scores earlier in the competition, and strong Yoshida Satone slipped surprisingly low on hold 12 to finish 9th overall.

For years Chamonix has been one of the most spectacular venues of all, but this season's plethora of tops - a staggering 57 in the qualifiers, 8 in the semis and 4 in the finals - left many with a bitter aftertaste. Route setting, it must be said, has to rank as one of the most unforgiving jobs out there but after the great climbs set at Innsbruck and Villars, it was disappointing to see the fate of athletes decided by the narrowest of margins. The next stage of the Lead World Cup will take place on 22-23 July at nearby Briançon where, hopefully, the routes will be calibrated a touch harder.

1 Janja Garnbret SLO top
2 Laura Rogora ITA top
3 Chaehyun Seo KOR top
4 Jessica Pilz AUT top
5 Natsuki Tanii JPN 45+
6 Natalia Grossman USA 43+
7 Brooke Raboutou USA 43+
8 Mia Krampl SLO 37
9 Manon Hily FRA
10 Hélène Janicot FRA
11 Risa Ota JPN
12 Molly Thompson-Smith GBR
13 Melina Costanza USA
14 Giorgia Tesio ITA
15 Aleksandra Totkova BUL
16 Vita Lukan SLO
17 Camille Pouget FRA
18 Futaba Ito JPN
19 Lucka Rakovec SLO
20 Miu Kakizaki JPN
21 Mei Kotake JPN
22 Zhilu Luo CHN
23 Ryu Nakagawa JPN
24 Eliska Adamovska CZE
25 Quinn Mason USA
26 Gayeong Oh KOR
27 Salomé Romain FRA
28 Michelle Hulliger SUI
29 Claudia Ghisolfi ITA
30 Anne-Sophie Koller SUI
31 Alannah Yip CAN
32 Tjasa Slemensek SLO
33 Sol Sa KOR
33 Eva Maria Hammelmüller AUT
33 Stasa Gejo SRB
36 Julia Chanourdie FRA
37 Käthe Atkins GER
38 Ilaria Scolaris ITA
39 Yuetong Zhang CHN
40 Noa Shiran ISR
41 Roxana Wienand GER
42 Nolwenn Arc FRA
43 Lana Skusek SLO
44 Louna Deshayes FRA
45 Babette Roy CAN
46 Kyra Condie USA
47 Maya Dreamer ISR
48 Valeri Kremer ISR
49 Ina Plassoux Djiga FRA
50 Valentina Aguado ARG
51 Rebecca Frangos CAN
52 Indiana Chapman CAN
52 Martina Demmel GER
52 Yejoo Seo KOR
52 Momoko Abe JPN
56 Mattea Pötzi AUT
56 Valentine Mangin FRA
58 Lucie Vaillant Bultel FRA
58 Aida Torres Illamola ESP
60 Kylie Cullen USA
61 Jennifer Wood GBR
62 Luisa Flohé GER
63 Margarita Agambayeva KAZ
64 Naama Yohai ISR
65 Sukma Lintang Cahyani INA
66 Thea Cameron GBR
67 Joanna Neame GBR
68 Hongchun Xiang CHN
69 Zihan Huang CHN
70 Emi Takashiba CAN
71 Nur Khalishah INA
72 Yajun Huang CHN
73 Elizabeth Sepulveda PUR
74 Bianca Magalhaes De Castro BRA
75 Emily Scott AUS
76 Fadya Devi Monica INA
77 Nur Diatul Jannah INA
78 María Fernanda Hidalgo Amezquita MEX
79 Phoebe Kenderdine NZL
80 Wai-Mui Ling HKG
81 Alyssa Meyer RSA
DNS Prateeksha Arun IND
DNS Mariana Hanggi Correia BRA

1 Adam Ondra CZE 39+
2 Taisei Homma JPN 39+
3 Sean Bailey USA 29+
4 Luka Potocar SLO 29+
5 Yannick Flohé GER 29+
6 Sam Avezou FRA 25+
7 Hamish McArthur GBR 25+
8 Sascha Lehmann SUI 20+
9 Satone Yoshida JPN 12
10 Hannes Puman SWE
11 Stefan Scherz AUT
12 Domen Skofic SLO
12 Dohyun Lee KOR
14 Paul Jenft FRA
15 Arsène Duval FRA
16 Filip Schenk ITA
17 Masahiro Higuchi JPN
18 Mathias Posch AUT
19 Kokoro Fujii JPN
20 Colin Duffy USA
21 Romaric Geffroy FRA
22 Milan Preskar SLO
23 Jeremy Bonder FRA
23 Sebastian Halenke GER
25 James Pope GBR
26 Alexander Megos GER
27 Philipp Martin GER
28 Ao Yurikusa JPN
29 Diego Fourbet FRA
30 Martin Stranik CZE
31 Maximillian Milne GBR
32 Adrien Lemaire FRA
33 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
34 Leto Cavé NED
35 Jesse Grupper USA
36 Jihwan Park KOR
37 Alberto Gotta ITA
38 Campbell Harrison AUS
38 Yuval Shemla ISR
38 Jongwon Chon KOR
41 Mikel Asier Linacisoro Molina ESP
42 Yufei Pan CHN
43 Hugo Parmentier FRA
44 Victor Baudrand CAN
45 Musauwir Musauwir INA
46 Nikolay Rusev BUL
46 Charlie Osborne USA
48 Lucas Dufros FRA
49 Marcello Bombardi ITA
50 Yongchen Chen CHN
51 Anthony Gullsten FIN
52 Sungsu Lee KOR
53 Alex Waterhouse GBR
54 Shinyeong Yun KOR
55 Santiago De Alba Flores MEX
56 Nino Grünenfelder SUI
57 Martin Bergant SLO
58 Ross Fulkerson USA
59 Giovanni Placci ITA
60 Jakub Zietek POL
60 Simon Potucek CZE
60 Leo Ketil Bøe NOR
63 Oscar Baudrand CAN
64 Felipe Ho Foganholo BRA
65 Cheung-Chi Shoji Chan HKG
66 Julien Clémence SUI
66 Sean Faulkner CAN
68 Fredrik Serlachius SWE
69 William Ridal GBR
70 Vasil Vassilev BUL
71 Guy Mcnamee CAN
72 Haibin Qu CHN
73 Chi-Fung Au HKG
74 Jinbin Huang CHN
75 Alistair Duval FRA
76 Benjamin Hanna USA
77 Joshua Mennell AUS
78 Kindar Mcnamee CAN
78 Stepan Potucek CZE
80 Tsz-Kiu Lau HKG
81 Cheuk-Nam Wong HKG
82 Muhammad Ferza Fernada Abdi INA
83 Muhammad Ramzi Firmansyah INA
84 Hualong Song CHN
85 Denis Zhendinskiy KAZ
86 Muhammad Rizky Syahrafli Simatupang INA
87 Hritik Marne IND
88 Rodrigo Iasi Hanada BRA
89 Emil Abrahamsson SWE
90 Mateus Rodrigues Bellotto BRA
91 Man-Hei Chung HKG
92 Fabian Förander SWE
93 Joshua Bruyns RSA
94 José Alejandro Sauceda Rodríguez MEX
DNS Mikael Suihkonen FIN

Links: IFSC, www.lenadrapella.com