Janja Garnbret and Tomoa Narasaki are the adidas Rockstars 2016

This weekend the World’s elite rock climbers descend on Stuttgart for the adidas Rockstars competitions that paired over 70 invited athletes from over 22 different countries. Even by the high standards of adidas Rockstars, the athlete line-up this year was incredibly strong. Of the 72 athletes who started, the field was narrowed over 2 rounds to just 6 male and 8 female finalists (due to a three-way tie for 6th place in the semi-finals 8 women progressed to the final instead of the usual 6). Amongst those 14 finalists were the reigning male European Boulder Champion, male Boulder World Cup overall winner, male Boulder World Champion, female World Boulder Champion and female Lead World Champion!

Jessica Pilz (AUT) and Janja Garnbret (SLO) were out first and it was a tense super-final which swung one way then the other, with both climbers coming close to reaching the buzzer, only to fall at the last move. With 90 seconds left on the clock, both climbers were on the crash mats, tired from their previous efforts but beaming broad smiles as the audience roared them on. Time ran out with both athletes on the wall but someone had to win so they climbed on! Finally, Janja reached up for the crucial top hold and as soon as she touched it, the win was a formality. She flopped onto the top of the wall, took a second to compose herself and pressed the buzzer to claim the adidas Rockstars title, a week after taking the World Championship lead final.

adidas Rockstars 2016 - Superfinal Women

In the men's Superfinal, Jan Hojer (GER) and Tomoa Narasaki (JPN) made their way onto the stage. In front of a home crowd, Jan inevitably got the bigger cheer but all of Tomoa’s victories this year have come away from Japan, so he can cope just fine with or without the crowd supporting him. Within 30 seconds of the super-final beginning, Tomoa had proved this again. He was already on top of the wall, with the buzzer pressed and his arms in the air having flashed the boulder. Jan also flashed it but just couldn’t live with the speed that Tomoa climbed.

adidas Rockstars 2016 - Superfinal Men


HALL OF FAME
2011: Anna Stöhr & Dmitry Sharafutdinov
2012: Alex Puccio & Sean McColl
2013: Juliane Wurm & Jernej Kruder
2014: Akiyo Noguchi & Sean McColl
2015: Megan Mascarenas & Sean McColl
2016: Janja Garnbret & Tomoa Narasaki

Men's Result
1 Tomoa Narasaki JPN
2 Jan Hojer GER
3 Jongwon Chon KOR
4 Alban Levier FRA
5 Rustam Gelmanov RUS
6 Jernej Kruder SLO
7 Alexander Wurm GER
8 Sergii Topishko UKR
9 Kokoro Fujii JPN
10 Alfons Dornauer AUT
11 Alexander Averdunk GER
12 Mickael Mawem FRA
13 Sean McColl CAN
14 Rolands Rugens LAT
15 Mondet Glairon Guillaume
16 Baptiste Ometz SUI
17 Domen Skofic SLO
18 Manuel Cornu FRA
19 Jakob Schubert AUT
20 David Barrans GBR
21 Anze Peharc SLO
22 Gholamali Baratzadeh IRI
23 Andrzej Mecherzynski-Wiktor POL
24 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
25 James Kassay AUS
26 Benjamin Blaser SUI
27 Urban Primozic SLO
28 David Firnenburg GER

Women's Result
1 Janja Garnbret SLO
2 Jessica Pilz AUT
3 Miho Nonaka JPN
4 Stasa Gejo SRB
5 Petra Klingler SUI
6 Leah Crane GBR
7 Akiyo Noguchi JPN
8 Mina Markovic SLO
9 Lilli Kiesgen GER
10 Megan Mascarenas USA
11 Franziska Sterrer AUT
12 Tjasa Kalan SLO
13 Katja Kadic SLO
14 Hung Lee Ying
15 Tjasa Slemensek SLO
16 Fanny Gibert FRA
17 Chloe Caulier BEL
18 Julija Kruder SLO
19 Alannah Yip CAN
20 Michaela Tracy GBR
21 Di Niu CHN
22 Natalie Bärtschi SUI
23 Maelys Agrapart FRA
24 Melanie Sandoz FRA
25 Alma Bestvater GER
26 Johanna Färber AUT
27 Farnaz Esmaeilzadeh IRI