Janja Garnbret, Tomoa Narasaki Combined Climbing World Champions

What impressed wasn’t so much the win by Janja Garnbret and Tomoa Narasaki, which had been on the cards all week, but how they managed to pull it off: Janja Garnbret retained her title won in Innsbruck last year after totalling just 12 points (6th in Speed, 2nd in Boulder and 1st in Lead), while Narasaki proved even more impressive with just 4 points (2nd in Speed, 1st in Boulder and 1st in Lead). Had he not fell while racing for the speed title, he would have fared even better!

Garnbret had to work hard for the win; Akiyo Noguchi had won the Bouldering comp with the only 2 tops and she touched she final hold in the Lead event, meaning that the Slovenian was forced to stick the last hold in Lead for overall victory. Which she did, claiming what has quite rightly been described as the historical triple: gold in Boulder World Championship, gold in the Lead World Championship and now gold in the Combined World Championship. Noguchi settled for silver with 21 points (7th in Speed, 1st in Boulder and 3rd in Lead), while Shauna Coxsey took home a very convincing bronze medal after scoring 42 points (2nd in Speed, 3rd in Boulder and 7th in Lead).

In the ensuing men’s event Narasaki obviously stole the show, placing second in Speed and managing to top three boulders when the next best topped only one, but it has to said that after having dominated the qualifiers, Alexander Megos injured his finger on the first boulder problem in the finals and retired from the competition. Jakob Schubert placed second having scored the only top in the Lead final, and the Austrian managed to beat Rishat Khaibullin after the climber from Kazakhstan was provisional second prior to the Lead final. He was perhaps the first real revelation of these World Championships, in the runup to the next opportunity to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games,, namely at the Combined Qualifier in Toulouse, France at the end of November.

1 Janja Garnbret SLO
2 Akiyo Noguchi JPN
3 Shauna Coxsey GBR
4 Aleksandra Miroslaw POL
5 Miho Nonaka JPN
6 Ai Mori JPN
7 Futaba Ito JPN
8 Petra Klingler SUI
9 Brooke Raboutou USA
10 Jessica Pilz AUT
11 Anouck Jaubert FRA
12 Julia Chanourdie FRA
13 Chaehyun Seo KOR
14 Mia Krampl SLO
15 Di Niu CHN
16 Vita Lukan SLO
17 Lucka Rakovec SLO
18 Alannah Yip CAN
19 Nanako Kura JPN
20 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR

1 Tomoa Narasaki JPN
2 Jakob Schubert AUT
3 Rishat Khaibullin KAZ
4 Kai Harada JPN
5 Meichi Narasaki JPN
6 Kokoro Fujii JPN
7 Mickael Mawem FRA
8 Alexander Megos GER
9 Ludovico Fossali ITA
10 Sean Mccoll CAN
11 Yannick Flohé GER
12 Nathaniel Coleman USA
13 Rudolph Ruana USA
14 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
15 Keita Dohi JPN
16 Jernej Kruder SLO
17 Jan Hojer GER
18 Adam Ondra CZE
19 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA
20 Jongwon Chon KOR

Qualified Athletes for Tokyo 2020
Women

1. Janja GARNBRET (SLO)
2. Akiyo NOGUCHI (JPN)
3. Shauna COXSEY (GBR)
4. Aleksandra MIROSLAW (POL)
5. Miho NONAKA (JPN)
6. Petra KLINGLER (SUI)
7. Brooke RABOUTOU (USA)

Men

1. Tomoa NARASAKI (JPN)
2. Jakob SCHUBERT (AUT)
3. Rishat KHAIBULLIN (KAZ)
4. Kai HARADA (JPN)
5. Mickael MAWEM (FRA)
6. Alexander MEGOS (GER)
7. Ludovico FOSSALI (ITA)