Janja Garnbret and Jakob Schubert victorious in Villars once again

In July 2018 Janja Garnbret and Jakob Schubert won the Villars stage of the Lead World Cup. Much has changed in the ensuing 5 years and while the field seems more stacked than ever before, one thing has remained constant: these two climbers remain at the very top of the table. In particular here in Switzerland.

Like in many previous edition poor weather hampered play, but despite swirling mist and pouring rain the organisers managed to pull off a dramatic competition, onhighly spectacular that pleased both the climbers and the crowd.

After Firday's Qualifers and Saturday morning's Semifinals, the Finals got underway on Saturday night with the men and with Shion Omata who, in his first finals, produced his best performance to date to finish 8th. Yufei Pan climbed 10 holds higher to finish 7th, then Alexander Megos mastered his way past them to stick a huge red duel-texture sloper before popping off. British revelation Toby Roberts fell from this hold and settled for fourth place based on countback, then Jakob Schubert easily stuck the sloper, calmly positioned his foot high and moved up another two holds before suddenly dropping off. Until that point he had looked truly in command and his fall came somewhat as a surprise. Next out was Adam Ondra, in his first Lead appearance this season and the pressure was on. So too was his form, and he climbed smoothly to just one hold of Schubert before giving in to gravity. Only two athletes were left at this point, Colin Duffy and 16-year-old Boulder World Cup 2023 winner Sorato Anraku. Both had topped the Semifinal route a few hours earlier. Perhaps they had given too much, because on the decisive route they both fell lower than expected, handing victory to Schubert, silver to Ondra and bronze to Megos. The oldest men's podium in history? Possibly. Certainly the most experienced.

Speaking to the IFSC immediately after his victory, 32-year-old Schubert explained "It feels so amazing, it’s been a while especially in the World Cup. I spoke to Adam [Ondra] and Alex [Megos] in Innsbruck, the field is so strong now it’s an achievement just to make finals. Going against these old guys, and the youngsters, it was amazing to come out on top today. It also feels amazing to be on the podium with two great friends. We were discussing if this is the oldest podium. The old guys dominated today."

In the women's event Garnbret set the pace as per usual, topping both qualifiers and the semis, meaning that she was out last in the finals. Out first though was Austria's Jessica Pilz and the 2018 World Champion put in a such a strong performance that almost all other athletes fell below her 43+ highpoint. Jain Kim celebrated her return from retirement and finished what can only be described as an astounding 7th, while shortly afterwards Mia Krampl was the first to make the spectacular spin-move facing out to the crowd-gone-wild, but then her foot slipped and she finished 5th. Just ahead of young Tanii Natsuki. Chaehyun Seo then climbed quickly up to the top of the wall but spent an agonzing minute trying to reach the penultimate hold and eventually dropped off just below Pilz's highpoint. Brooke Raboutou is on amazing form but unfortunately the American spent too long figuring out the spin-move; when she eventually committed to her sequence she sprinted upwards but was timed out on the same hold as Seo. The clock had stopped but Raboutou nevertheless summoned up the courage for the dyno to the top hold... and took the long fall into the darkness as the crowd went wild. Last out was Garnbret and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion looks stronger and, more importantly, more confident than ever before. Her back-to-back victories in Boulder and Lead at Innsbruck a fortnight ago certainly gave her a boost, especially in view of her injuries in February, and in Villars she evidently immediately found her flow. As the rain fell heavily she climbed with immense power and grace and never looked in any difficulty at all. She hesitated only briefly at the spin move, then twisted and smiled to the crowd before cruising to the top. Her dyno to the last hold was a mere formality, sealing her seventh straight victory in Villars. No wonder she feels this is her second home. 

The 24-year-old explained “It feels incredible. I’ve always loved Villars. I’ve always loved coming here and I feel a bit like it’s my competition and it’s home here. After Innsbruck I felt confident and I can see my Lead shape is there. I have been climbing with confidence and that’s how I have climbed in the finals here.”

VILLARS 2023
1 Janja Garnbret SLO top
2 Jessica Pilz AUT 43+
3 Brooke Raboutou USA 43
4 Chaehyun Seo KOR 43
5 Mia Krampl SLO 40+
6 Natsuki Tanii JPN 36
7 Jain Kim KOR 22+
8 Mattea Pötzi AUT 17+
9 Molly Thompson-Smith GBR
10 Salomé Romain FRA
11 Natalia Grossman USA
12 Hélène Janicot FRA
13 Vita Lukan SLO
14 Yuetong Zhang CHN
15 Lucka Rakovec SLO
16 Nonoha Kume JPN
17 Laura Rogora ITA
18 Manon Hily FRA
19 Lucia Dörffel GER
20 Ryu Nakagawa JPN
21 Oriane Bertone FRA
22 Lynn Van Der Meer NED
23 Lana Skusek SLO
24 Elnaz Rekabi IRI
24 Sol Sa KOR
24 Anastasia Sanders USA
27 Kyra Condie USA
27 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR
27 Zhilu Luo CHN
30 Hana Koike JPN
31 Rebecca Frangos CAN
32 Petra Klingler SUI
33 Futaba Ito JPN
34 Liv Egli SUI
34 Miu Kakizaki JPN
36 Roxana Wienand GER
37 Miho Nonaka JPN
38 Chloe Caulier BEL
38 Erin Mcneice GBR
40 Valeri Kremer ISR
41 Eva Maria Hammelmüller AUT
42 Ilaria Scolaris ITA
43 Valentina Aguado ARG
43 Martina Demmel GER
45 Michelle Hulliger SUI
46 Tina Johnsen Hafsaas NOR
47 Käthe Atkins GER
48 Zoe Peetermans GBR
49 Zoé Egli SUI
50 Claudia Ghisolfi ITA
51 Lianet Castillo VEN
51 Cloe Coscoy USA
51 Ema Galeova CZE
51 Anne-Sophie Koller SUI
51 Noé Looser SUI
51 Noa Shiran ISR
57 Rahil Ramezani IRI
58 Sara Copar SLO
58 Andrea Kümin SUI
60 Federica Papetti ITA
61 Nolwenn Arc FRA
62 Valentina Arnoldi ITA
63 Indiana Chapman CAN
63 Adriene Akiko Clark USA
63 Alejandra Contreras CHI
63 Franziska Sterrer AUT
67 Marketa Janosova CZE
68 Svana Bjarnason ISL
69 Zoe Garcia Molina ARG
70 Muykuay Silva CHI
71 Laura Farhat De Araujo Fraga Timo BRA
72 Emily Scott AUS
73 Mariana Hanggi Correia BRA
74 Elizabeth Sepulveda PUR
75 Chloe Earle CAN
76 Tegwen Oates RSA
77 Prateeksha Arun IND
78 María Fernanda Hidalgo Amezquita MEX
79 Alyssa Meyer RSA
79 Sara Trajkoska MKD
81 Iris Pamela Duron Antonio HON
82 Vinnith Im CAM
83 Grecia Daniela Hernandez Guerrero ESA
dns Anastasia Kobets UKR
dns Nika Potapova UKR
dns Lucija Tarkus SLO

1 Jakob Schubert AUT 42+
2 Adam Ondra CZE 41+
3 Alexander Megos GER 40
4 Toby Roberts GBR 39+
5 Colin Duffy USA 37+
6 Sorato Anraku JPN 36+
7 Yufei Pan CHN 34
8 Shion Omata JPN 24+
9 Sean Bailey USA
10 Luka Potocar SLO
11 Jules Marchaland FRA
12 Satone Yoshida JPN
13 Taisei Homma JPN
14 Hamish Mcarthur GBR
15 Nao Monchois FRA
16 Stefan Scherz AUT
17 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
18 Sascha Lehmann SUI
19 Paul Jenft FRA
20 Yuval Shemla ISR
21 Masahiro Higuchi JPN
22 Jesse Grupper USA
23 Haruki Uemura JPN
24 Marcello Bombardi ITA
25 Nicolai Uznik AUT
26 Neo Suzuki JPN
27 Martin Stranik CZE
28 Ao Yurikusa JPN
29 Nino Grünenfelder SUI
30 Jonas Utelli SUI
31 Yunchan Song KOR
32 Sean Mccoll CAN
33 Jordi Poles FRA
34 Hannes Van Duysen BEL
35 Dillon Countryman USA
35 Yannick Flohé GER
37 Giorgio Tomatis ITA
38 James Pope GBR
38 Joseph Xiberras GBR
40 Simon Lorenzi BEL
41 Dimitri Flick SUI
41 Louis Gundolf AUT
43 Oscar Baudrand CAN
44 Milan Preskar SLO
45 Filip Schenk ITA
46 Philipp Martin GER
47 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
48 Victor Baudrand CAN
49 Nicolas Collin BEL
49 Mathias Posch AUT
51 Mikel Asier Linacisoro Molina ESP
51 Dimitri Vogt SUI
53 Zach Galla USA
54 Alberto Ginés López ESP
55 Raviandi Ramadhan INA
56 Christoph Hanke GER
57 Cheung-Chi Shoji Chan HKG
58 Ravianto Ramadhan INA
59 Nimrod Marcus ISR
60 Maximillian Milne GBR
61 Mickael Mawem FRA
62 Minsung Han KOR
63 Fredrik Serlachius SWE
64 Nimród Sebestyén Tusnády HUN
65 Auswin Aueareechit THA
66 Lovro Crep SLO
67 Reza Kolasangian IRI
68 Jernej Kruder SLO
69 Jinbin Huang CHN
70 Martin Bergant SLO
71 Alireza Pilehforoushan IRI
72 Chingkheinganba Maibam IND
73 Jachym Cink CZE
74 Luca Malosti ITA
75 Chi-Fung Au HKG
76 Hector Lopez Valdez MEX
77 Dario Jost SUI
78 Benjamin Vargas CHI
78 Thor Villegas García MEX
80 Mateus Rodrigues Bellotto BRA
80 Lautaro Nicolás Soria Sanchez ARG
82 Joaquin Urrutia CHI
83 Bautista Gregorini ARG
83 Nathan Martin LUX
85 Diego Lequerica Buscaglia PER
86 Rodrigo Iasi Hanada BRA
87 Hritik Marne IND
88 Guðmundur Freyr Arnarson ISL
89 Luis Castellanos VEN
90 Pheaktra Sambath CAM
91 Gianstefano Di Nino VEN
92 Marcelo Ignacio Vargas Claros ESA
93 Matej Markov MKD
94 Daniel Alejandro Merino Ordóñez HON
dns Leonid Osadchyi UKR