Janja Garnbret the Great commands in China, with Tomoa Narasaki

Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret continued her unprecedented run of victories last weekend at Wujang in China by winning the fourth stage of Bouldering World Cup with disarming ease. Where others seem to flail, the 20-year-old evidently excels and just like a week ago she was the only athlete to send all problems the route setters flung at her to secure her fourth straight victory this season. This is her 36th World Cup medal across both boulder and lead disciplines, and her 23rd gold. Garnbret the Great indeed! Despite climbing superbly all weekend, veteran Akiyo Noguchi was once again forced to settle for silver - for the record, her 57th World Cup medal - with 3 tops and 4 zones in 4 attempts, while young teammate Ai Mori took her first ever bronze medal with 3 tops and 4 zones in 11. Miho Nonaka celebrated her return to form after injury and placed fourth, while Austria’s Jessica Pilz placed fifth and France’s Julia Chanourdie, despite not sending a single problem, confirmed rumours hat she’s equally powerful without a rope as she is with.

Much to the delight of the spectators and athletes, the spectacular route setting continued on the incredibly steep wall in the men’s event, too. The absolutely ruthless Semis had proven fatal for some of the biggest names, including Rei Sugimoto, Aleksey Rubtsov, Jongwon Chon, Adam Ondra, Gregor Vezonik and Jernej Kruder which paved the way for 2016 World Champion Tomoa Narasaki to make amends for his costly mistake in Chonquing a week ago. Narasaki convincingly secured his first win this season, just ahead of 2018 World Champion Kai Horada who needed a few attempts more to claim the same score of 3 tops and 4 zones. Interestingly, Horada’s top on problem #3 was originally discarded by the judges but later awarded thanks to a timely appeal. And Horada’s flash of problem #4 - unclimbed by everyone else - was nothing short of astounding. After a difficult start to the season Jakob Schubert finally returned to his usual form and placed third, while Keita Dohi matched the Austrian’s performance but slipped to fourth due to countback. Kororo Fuji placed fifth confirming once again that the breadth of Japanese talent is unparalleled - a staggering 7 of the 12 finalists are team Japan - while 2015 European Champion Jan Hojer battled hard to earn a highly respectable 6th place.

With just two more World Cup stages left, it seems nigh impossible that anyone will manage to beat Garnbret this season as she commands the provisional ranking with a perfect score of 400 points. In the men’s event it’s still early days, but Narasaki’s victory, coupled with Ondra’s failure to pick up points in Wujang, means that he now leads with 260 points, 56 ahead of Czech.

Results - Female
1 Janja Garnbret SLO 4T4z54
2 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 3T4z45
3 Ai Mori JPN 3T4z119
4 Miho Nonaka JPN 2T4z47
5 Jessica Pilz AUT 2T4z67
6 Julia Chanourdie FRA 0T2z02
7 Futaba Ito JPN
8 Sol Sa KOR
9 Elnaz Rekabi IRI
10 Petra Klingler SUI
11 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR
12 Mao Nakamura JPN
13 Katja Kadic SLO
13 Fanny Gibert FRA
15 Lucka Rakovec SLO
16 YueTong Zhang CHN
17 Alannah Yip CAN
18 Hung Ying Lee TPE
18 Naile Meignan FRA
20 Flavy Cohaut FRA
21 Chloe Caulier BEL
21 Ashima Shiraishi USA
23 Jain Kim KOR
23 Sandra Lettner AUT
25 Afra Hönig GER
25 Viktoriia Meshkova RUS
27 Valentina Aguado ARG
27 Emily Phillips GBR
29 Anouck Jaubert FRA
29 Alex Johnson USA
31 Alma Bestvater GER
31 Kyra Condie USA
33 Oceania Mackenzie AUS
33 Laura Rogora ITA
35 Sienna Kopf USA
35 Laura Stöckler AUT
37 Iuliia Panteleeva RUS
37 Vera Zijlstra NED
39 Margo Hayes USA
39 Allison Vest CAN
41 Manon Hily FRA
41 Elena Krasovskaya RUS
43 Rong Jiang CHN
43 YiLing Song CHN
45 Aleksandra Kalucka POL
45 serika Okawachi JPN
45 Jennifer Wood GBR
48 Di Niu CHN
49 Anne-Sophie Koller SUI
49 Anna Tsyganova RUS
51 Heloïse Doumont BEL
51 Tara Hayes GBR
51 Molly Thompson-Smith GBR
54 Valiantsina Chamiakina BLR
55 Nanako Kura JPN
55 LINDA Sjödin SWE
57 Natalia Kalucka POL
57 Bronwen Karnis CAN
59 Beatrix Evans CAN
59 Virgita Nadya Putri INA
59 Joanna Neame GBR
59 Margaryta Zakharova UKR
63 Andrea Rojas ECU
64 Tiffany Melius AUS
65 Anna Davey AUS
65 Heeyeon Park KOR
67 Iuliia Kaplina RUS
67 Iqamah Nurul INA
67 Aleksandra Rudzinska POL
70 Paige Boklaschuk CAN
71 YuZhen Baima CHN
71 Wai-ping Yu HKG
73 Anna Brozek POL
73 Patrycja Chudziak POL
73 Aliaksandra Misiukevich BLR
73 Salsabila Salsabila INA
73 Lucinda Ann Stirling AUS
73 PeiYang Tian CHN
73 Hoi-ying To HKG
80 Amanda Speed NZL
80 Aries Susanti Rahayu INA
80 Sarah Tetzlaff NZL
80 Choirul Umi Cahyaning Ayub INA

Results - Male
1 Tomoa Narasaki JPN 3T4z78
2 Kai Harada JPN 3T4z713
3 Jakob Schubert AUT 1T4z29
4 Keita Dohi JPN 1T4z29
5 Kokoro Fujii JPN 1T4z318
6 Jan Hojer GER 1T3z911
7 Rei Sugimoto JPN
8 YuFei Pan CHN
9 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
10 Aleksey Rubtsov RUS
11 Jongwon Chon KOR
12 Nathaniel Coleman USA
13 Sergei Skorodumov RUS
14 Adam Ondra CZE
15 Gregor Vezonik SLO
16 Jernej Kruder SLO
17 Meichi Narasaki JPN
17 Alban Levier FRA
19 Vadim Timonov RUS
20 Anze Peharc SLO
21 Yannick Flohé GER
21 Georg Parma AUT
23 Taisei Ishimatsu JPN
23 Alex Khazanov ISR
25 Florian Klingler AUT
25 Nathan Phillips GBR
25 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
28 Simon Lorenzi BEL
29 William Bosi GBR
29 Nikolai Iarilovets RUS
31 Nicolas Collin BEL
31 Alexander Megos GER
33 Sergei Luzhetskii RUS
33 Rudolph Ruana USA
35 Manuel Cornu FRA
35 Sascha Lehmann SUI
37 Sean Mccoll CAN
37 Hannes Puman SWE
37 Fedir Samoilov UKR
40 Yuji Inoue JPN
41 Leo Avezou FRA
41 Sean Bailey USA
43 Jason Holowach CAN
43 Ram Levin ISR
45 William Ridal GBR
45 Tomoaki Takata JPN
47 Marcello Bombardi ITA
47 Sergii Topishko UKR
49 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA
49 Loïc Timmermans BEL
51 Hanwool Kim KOR
51 Philipp Martin GER
53 Zach Galla USA
53 Nimrod Marcus ISR
55 James Pope GBR
55 Lucas Uchida CAN
57 Kim Marschner GER
57 Yuval Shemla ISR
59 David Barrans GBR
59 Minyoung Lee KOR
61 Carlos Granja ECU
61 Zach Richardson CAN
63 Nils Favre SUI
63 Fatchur Roji INA
65 Hei-yeung Lam HKG
65 Rolf Fredrik Serlachius SWE
67 Campbell Harrison AUS
67 Ned Middlehurst AUS
69 Chi-fung Au HKG
69 Ka-chun Yau HKG
71 Cheuk-hei Ho HKG
71 Mickael Mawem FRA
73 Bassa Mawem FRA
73 Francesco Vettorata ITA
75 Ludovico Fossali ITA
75 Rifaldi Ridjaya Ode INA
77 Chase Gatland NZL
77 Nathan Smith CAN
79 Cheung-chi Shoji Chan HKG
79 Danny Valencia ECU
81 John Brosler USA
81 Lasa Temi INA
83 Aspar Jaelolo INA
83 Wan Tong Lok MAC
85 Kristoffer Lindbäck SWE
85 Thomas Waldin NZL
87 Joshua Damasco AUS
87 Sam Lavender AUS
89 Aliaksandr Ivanou BLR
89 George Sanders NZL
89 QiXin Zhong CHN
92 Kostiantyn Pavlenko UKR
93 Long Cao CHN
93 Marcin Dzienski POL
93 Jan Kriz CZE
96 Alfian Muhammad INA
97 Hritik Marne IND