Janja Garnbret and Romain Desgranges brilliant at Briançon

Romain Desgranges a cut above the rest. This is the overriding sensation after having witnessed the Frenchman dominate the third leg of the Lead climbing World Cup 2017 on Saturday night at Briançon and win his second gold medal this season, after victory in the European Championships in Campitello.

In front of his home crowd Desgranges managed to reach a hold statically where others had taken a tumble and where only Sean McColl and Stefano Ghisolfi had taken the risk of dynoing across to enter the headwall above. And where these two stars struggled for second and third place, Desgranges demonstrated absolute control and composure before failing just a few moves short of the top. The route they all battled on proved intense right from move one and was calibrated perfectly to test the athletes and provide a clear ranking.

Masahiro Higuchi and Sean Bailey fell at the dyno move, Bombardi - after winning in Chamonix two weeks ago and in only his second ever final - slipped while setting himself up for the dyno. Naoki Shimatani fell lower and Sebastian Halenke found himself flung off the route even before finding a minimal flow.

In the women's event the overriding sensation is that Janja Garnbret continues to possess that “little extra” that enabled her to win, after competitions one and two, competition three this season. In truth the difference between her and the other athletes is not enormous - Jain Kim and Anak Verhoeven also topped out on all routes in qualifiers and semi and the Belgian lost vital seconds and strength clipping the rope where Garnbret powered through to stick one hold more - but at the moment the Slovenian has that ounce more of strength and lucidity that obviously made the difference.

Kim displayed great control to place third and was rewarded with a standing ovation from the huge crowd despite the rain, ahead of Julia Chanourdie who is going from strength to strength this season. Jessica Pilz, Margo Hayes and Salomé Romain all fell from the same move at about half height, while Mina Markovic slipped low down, not only she knows how.

Male
1 Romain Desgranges FRA 41
2 Sean Mccoll CAN 39
3 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 35
4 Masahiro Higuchi JPN 29
5 Sean Bailey USA 28+
6 Marcello Bombardi ITA 27
7 Naoki Shimatani JPN 22.5
8 Sebastian Halenke GER 13+
9 Domen Skofic SLO
10 Keiichiro Korenaga JPN
11 Sam Avezou FRA
12 Max Rudigier AUT
13 Hanwool Kim KOR
14 Francesco Vettorata ITA
15 Loïc Timmermans BEL
16 James Pope GBR
17 Hannes Puman SWE
18 Jakub Konecny CZE
19 Thomas Joannes FRA
20 Christoph Hanke GER
21 Aleksei Rubtsov RUS
22 Filip Schenk ITA
23 Matthias Schiestl AUT
24 Martin Tekles GER
25 Elan Jonasmcrae CAN
26 Théo Ravanello FRA
27 Anatole Bosio FRA
28 Vladislav Shevchenko RUS
29 Jesse Grupper USA
30 Nao Monchois FRA
31 Jernej Kruder SLO
32 Kai Lightner USA
33 Yannick Flohé GER
34 Sergei Bydtaev RUS
35 Jan Hojer GER
36 Javier Cano Blazquez ESP
37 David Firnenburg GER
37 Nikolai Iarilovets RUS
37 Tomas Ravanal CHI
40 Mathias Posch AUT
41 Dimitri Vogt SUI
42 Giorgio Bendazzoli ITA
42 Kim Marschner GER
42 Tanguy Topin FRA
45 Àlex Hernández Castilla ESP
46 Campbell Harrison AUS
47 Sungbo Seo KOR
48 Maciej Dobrzanski POL
49 DiChong Huang CHN
50 Tomas Binter CZE
51 Martin Bergant SLO
52 Charli Blein FRA
53 Jerome González Gutiérrez ESP
54 Obed Hardmeier SUI
55 Nathan Martin FRA
56 Leo Ketil Bøe NOR
57 YuFei Pan CHN
58 Martin Kuhnel USA
59 Rolf Fredrik Serlachius SWE
60 Stepan Volf CZE
61 Kyle Murdoch CAN
62 Benjamin Ayala CHI
63 Markus Gillberg SWE
64 Love Ymer Alber SWE
65 Oliver Marx RSA
66 Albert Ilsaas Suthurst NOR
67 Kristoffer Klev NOR
68 Denis Pail CZE

Female
1 Janja Garnbret SLO 39+
2 Anak Verhoeven BEL 38+
3 Jain Kim KOR 36+
4 Julia Chanourdie FRA 30+
5 Jessica Pilz AUT 26+
6 Margo Hayes USA 26+
7 Salomé Romain FRA 26+
8 Mina Markovic SLO 20+
9 Hélène Janicot FRA
10 Katherine Choong SUI
11 Molly Thompson- Smith GBR
12 Risa Ota JPN
13 Brooke Raboutou USA
14 Viktoriia Meshkova RUS
15 Julia Fiser AUT
16 Vita Lukan SLO
17 Nolwen Berthier FRA
18 Katharina Posch AUT
19 Hannah Schubert AUT
20 Moe Yoshimura JPN
21 Laura Stöckler AUT
22 Anne-Sophie Koller SUI
23 Heloïse Doumont BEL
24 Tina Johnsen Hafsaas NOR
25 Alina Ring SUI
26 Minseon Kim KOR
27 Nolwenn Arc FRA
28 Claudia Ghisolfi ITA
29 Kenza Slamti FRA
30 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR
31 Mia Krampl SLO
32 Magdalena Röck AUT
33 Lisa De Martini ITA
34 Giorgia Tesio ITA
35 Meagan Martin USA
36 Kajsa Rosen SWE
37 Léa Marigo FRA
38 Muriel Ruíz De Larramendi Arangoa ESP
39 Roxy Perry AUS
40 Rebecca Frangos CAN
41 Lisa-Marie Kvandahl NOR
42 Celine Cuypers BEL
42 Bréanne Robert FRA
44 Audrey Sniezek USA
45 Elena Krasovskaia RUS
46 Iuliia Panteleeva RUS
47 Silvia Barrett SWE
48 Mathilde Becerra FRA
49 Bergljot Hansen NOR
50 Lucinda Ann Stirling AUS
50 Marion Traber FRA
52 Moriwaki Honoka JPN
53 YiLing Song CHN
54 Lesley Ladlad USA
55 Ingrid Helene Amundrud NOR
55 Zoe Steinberg USA
57 Elina Avramova CAN
58 Sarah Mckenzie AUS