Janja Garnbret, Jakob Schubert win Lead World Cup 2018

Wujiang in China hosted the penultimate stage of the Lead World Cup 2018 and all eyes were on compelling and intense duel between Janja Garnbret and Jessica Pilz on the one hand, and between Jakob Schubert and Stefano Ghisolfi on the other. All were gunning for the coveted season title, with Pilz and Ghisolfi hoping to reduce the margin, and Garnbret and Schubert wishing to secure overall victory.

Unfortunately the much anticipated showdown didn’t materialise because heavy rain forced the organisers to cancel both finals. In truth the women’s final did take place initially with Jessica Pilz, third last, managing to secure the route’s only top in the dying seconds of her allocated time. The rain then intensified and both Jain Kim and Janja Garnbret climbed powerfully, only to slip off wet holds on the final section. Following a technical incident appeal the organisers had no other option but to cancel not only the women's final but also the men's final, scheduled to take place a few minutes later.

In rare occurrences such as this one, IFSC rules state that countback to the semifinal must be applied, meaning that stage victory went to France’s Romain Desgranges and Garnbret and Jain Kim, joint equal. This stop obviously also significantly affected the overall standings and, one stage before the last 2018 World Cup event, the season winners were already confirmed: Jakob Schubert - who won the third Lead season title of his career during a startling season that also saw him win the World Championships in Innsbruck - and Janja Garnbret, for the third time in a row.

Stefano Ghisolfi and Jessica Pilz, placed 5th and 3rd in Wujiang and have ended the season with a superb silver medal in the overall standing, while the bronze medal will be decided at the last stage on 27 - 28 October in Xiamen.

It goes without saying that it’s disappointing that the competition didn’t go down to the wire because, as the athletes themselves state, it would have been great to see everyone compete in the final, and also because according to the route setters Leonardo di Marino, Carles Brasco and Remy Samin, that line of holds was one of the most beautiful they’d ever set.

Wujiang also hosted the penultimate stage of the Lead World Cup, won by the Indonesians Aspar Jaelolo and Aries Susanti Rahayu. Italy’s Ludovico Fossali scored two sub-6 second runs and finished second together with France’ Anouck Jaubert, while Reza Alipourshenazandifar from Iran and Iulia Kaplina from Russia finished third.

LEAD
Women
1 Janja Garnbret SLO 36+
1 Jain Kim KOR 36+
3 Jessica Pilz AUT 36
4 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 35+
5 Katharina Posch AUT 31
6 Tjasa Kalan SLO 22+
6 Mia Krampl SLO 22+
8 Manon Hily FRA 22+
9 Hannah Schubert AUT 22+
10 Natsumi Hirano JPN 22+
11 Christine Schranz AUT 22+
12 Futaba Ito JPN 22+
13 Mei Kotake JPN 22+
14 Miu Kurita JPN 22+
15 Aya Onoe JPN 22+
16 Heloïse Doumont BEL 22+
17 Fanny Gibert FRA 22+
18 Lan Kim KOR 22+
19 Oceania Mackenzie AUS 22
20 HongChun Xiang CHN 22
21 Tina Johnsen Hafsaas NOR 21
22 Mina Markovic SLO 17+
23 Julia Fiser AUT 17
24 Dinara Fakhritdinova RUS 13+
25 ZhuoYing Chen CHN 13+
26 Anna Tsyganova RUS 13+
27 Rebecca Frangos CAN
28 Yuki Hiroshige JPN
29 Anouck Jaubert FRA
30 Iqomah Nurul INA
31 Aries Susanti Rahayu INA
32 Rajiah Sallsabillah INA
33 Sari Agustina INA
34 Mulyani Mudji INA
35 Anna Brozek POL

Men
1 Romain Desgranges FRA 35+
2 Jakob Schubert AUT 32+
3 Hyunbin Min KOR 32
4 Hidemasa Nishida JPN 31+
5 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 28+
6 Francesco Vettorata ITA 28+
7 Fedir Samoilov UKR 28
8 Taisei Homma JPN 26+
9 Marcello Bombardi ITA 26+
10 Masahiro Higuchi JPN 26
11 Hiroto Shimizu JPN 25+
12 Nicolas Collin BEL 25+
12 HaiBin Qu CHN 25+
14 Minoru Nakano JPN 25+
15 Taito Nakagami JPN 25+
16 Max Rudigier AUT 25
17 Sascha Lehmann SUI 25
18 Georg Parma AUT 25
19 Domen Skofic SLO 21+
20 Yuki Hada JPN 19+
21 Elan Jonasmcrae CAN 19+
22 Martin Kuhnel USA 19+
23 Loïc Timmermans BEL 18+
24 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 18
25 Wan Jae Jo KOR 9+
26 Alfian Muhammad INA 9
27 John Brosler USA 7
28 Aidan Doyle CAN
29Septo Wibowo Siburian Pangeran INA
30 Aspar Jaelolo INA
31 Sabri Sabri INA
32 Brandon Barraclough CAN
33 Marcin Dzienski POL
34 Veddriq Leonardo INA

SPEED
Women
1 Aries Susanti Rahayu INA
2 Anouck Jaubert FRA 
3 Iuliia Kaplina RUS
4 Mariia Krasavina RUS
5 Sari Agustina INA
6 Anna Tsyganova RUS
7 MingWei Ni CHN
8 Puji Lestari INA
9 Anna Brozek POL
10 CuiLian He CHN
11 Rajiah Sallsabillah INA
12 Victoire Andrier FRA
13 Aurelia Sarisson FRA
14 Ekaterina Barashchuk RUS
15 Tetiana Kolkotina UKR
16 Iqomah Nurul INA
17 HaiMei Qiu CHN
18 Elena Remizova RUS
19 GuiZhen Xie CHN
20 Elena Timofeeva RUS
21 Oceania Mackenzie AUS
22 Mulyani Mudji INA
23 Futaba Ito JPN
24 Janja Garnbret SLO
25 Elizabeth Sepulveda USA
26 Akiyo Noguchi JPN
27 Jessica Pilz AUT
28 Fanny Gibert FRA
29 Miu Kurita JPN
30 Mia Krampl SLO
31 Rebecca Frangos CAN
32 Heloïse Doumont BEL
33 LiJuan Deng CHN

Men
1 Aspar Jaelolo INA 
2 Ludovico Fossali ITA 
3 Reza Alipourshena. IRI
4 Aleksandr Shilov RUS
5 Sergei Rukin RUS
6 JinXin Li CHN
7 Dmitrii Timofeev RUS
8 Danyil Boldyrev UKR
9 Bassa Mawem FRA
10 Alfian Muhammad INA
11 Kostiantyn Pavlenko UKR
12 Pangeran Septo Wibowo Siburian INA
13 Vladislav Deulin RUS
14 Gian Luca Zodda ITA
15 Veddriq Leonardo INA
16 Aleksandr Shikov RUS
17 Hinayah Muhammad INA
18 Jan Kriz CZE
19 PengHui Lin CHN
20 Sabri Sabri INA
21 Marcin Dzienski POL
22 Stanislav Kokorin RUS
23 YuRong Duan CHN
24 Milad Alipour Shenazandifar IRI
25 ZhiXuan Chen CHN
26 Guillaume Moro FRA
27 Jakob Schubert AUT
28 Sascha Lehmann SUI
29 Ehsan Delfaniyan IRI
30 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
31 Nicolas Collin BEL
32 John Brosler USA
33 Marcello Bombardi ITA
34 Aidan Doyle CAN
35 Loïc Timmermans BEL
36 Fedir Samoilov UKR