Janja Garnbret wins double gold at European Climbing Championships in Munich

Germany’s Munich hosted the European Climbing Championships last week and once again Janja Garnbret from Slovenia demonstrated her total domination of this sport by winning the Lead event on Saturday and then, on Sunday, the Boulder event. Nicolai Uznik from Austria was crowned European Boulder Champion, Adam Ondra from the Czech Republic European Lead Champion. Aleksandra Miroslaw from Poland and Danyil Boldyrev from Ukraine were crowned European Speed Champions.

WOMEN LEAD & BOULDER
Garnbret’s first-ever European title in front of a packed crowd in the scenic Königsplatz came about after demonstrating unparalleled form in both the qualifier and semis, before scoring 50+ from a 51-hold final climb. The Olympic winner was last out and therefore under pressure to perform, especially since minutes earlier Austria’s Jessica Pilz had set an impressive highpoint at 45+, but the Slovenian kept her nerve and powered smoothly another five holds higher to fall just below the top. Pilz settled for silver while France’s Manon Hily, after her outstanding provisional second place in the Semis, fell off hold 41+ to win bronze. Mia Krampl of Slovenia placed fourth, Aleksandra Totkova of Bulgaria matched Krampl’s 40+ and placed fifth on countback, just ahead of Eliska Adamovska of the Czech Republic who finished sixth. The home crowd favourite, Germany’s Hannah Meul was seventh overall reaching 37 as Ukrainian Ievgeniia Kazbekova rounded out the final standings in eighth with 18+.

24 hours later the Slovenian was on the top podium position once again, this time having won Boulder gold. Unusually for her, she got off to a slow start by only securing a zone on Boulder #1, after home favourite Hannah Meul and France’s Oriane Bertone had both topped the first Boulder second and third go respectively. Garnbret’s experience is second-to-none and she kept her cool on Boulder #2 and produced what can only be described as a devastatingly supreme flash, since France’s Fanny Gibert secured a zone here while all others failed even to reach this point. Fighting in front of her home crowd Meul was having the time of her life and she piled on the pressure by flashing Boulder #3 after Bertone sent if fourth go, and at this point in order to stay in the running Garnbret needed a flash. Which she promptly produced, smooth as clockwork, to effectively win the competition since getting past the zone on Boulder #4 proved too difficult even for her. So Garnbret won with 2 tops and 4 zones, Meul secured silver with 2 tops and 3 zones, 17-year-old Bertone took bronze after needing a handful of attempts more to produce 2 tops and 3 zones just like Meul. Belgium’s Chloé Caulier finished in fourth position, Eliska Adamovska of the Czech Republic in fifth, and France’s Fanny Gibert a disappointing sixth failing to find her usual rhythm.

MEN BOULDER & LEAD
A few hours after Garnbret claimed her first European gold on Saturday, Nicolai Uznik did the same and was crowned European Boulder Champion. With the first and last boulder proving way too difficult, the results were decided by just boulders #2 and #3. Young Mejdi Schalck topped this on his third go, teammate Sam Avezou on his fourth, Uznik on his fifth and Adam Ondra - the best after the Semis - on his 10th, while Filip Schenk and former European champion Jernej Kruder fared no better than a zone. On Boulder #3 Schalck missed his golden opportunity and failed to make it past the zone, like Kruder, while Uznik produced an awesome flash that would eventually secure him his first continental title. Ondra topped this bloc second go to win bronze, Avezou topped it third go to win silver; with 2 tops and 2 zones each, the three medalists were separated by were attempts needed to reach the tops and zones.

Ondra viewed his Boulder bronze as a bonus since, he stated, he’d had no real expectations for that event, but Lead was always going to be his thing. He placed provisional second in the semis along with Luka Potočar and Alberto Ginés López, and behind Jakob Schubert on devastatingly good form, and in the finals he powered upwards with his characteristically fast, powerful style to hold 37+. Just like Potočar, except that Ondra got there in 3:01, a decisive minute faster since the two were then separated on time. López fell two holds lower to win bronze, while Schubert had to make do with 4th place, ahead of crowd favourites Alexander Megos and  Yannick Flohé, fifth and sixth, respectively. Rounding out the top eight were Domen Škofic of Slovenia, and Italy’s Filip Schenk, both of whom posted scores of 17+.

SPEED
The 15 meter Speed event took place on Monday and was dominated, unsurprisingly, by the Polish women’s squad and Ukraine’s Danyil Boldyrev. After working her way through the heats it was Aleksandra Miroslaw who clocked in a time of 6.922 to beat teammate Aleksandra Kalucka 7.085. In the bronze medal match Natalia Kalucka ensured she joined her sister on the podium by tapping at 7.197 compared to Patrycja Chudziak’s 7.459. The men’s showdown between Boldyrev and former European champion, Poland’s Marcin Dzienski, went Boldyrev’s way as he tapped at 5.586 compared to Dzienski’s 6.245. In the race for bronze France’s Guillaume Moro beat Spain’s Erik Noya Cardona, 5.551 vs 5.658.

Although the Individual titles have been assigned, the action is far from over and resumes on Wednesday and Thursday with the new Olympic format, Boulder and Lead combined.

All results: www.ifsc-climbing.org