Japan dominates Briançon Lead World Cup

The fourth stage of the Lead World Cup took place in Briançon last weekend and, despite being impoverished as all the main players except for Laura Rogora skipped it in their final preparations to the Paris Olympics, the event proved a success.

Six athletes from Team Japan managed to qualify for the men's final, with three claiming the podium making for a historic clean sweep: Murashita Zento won gold with with a score of 47, Yoshida Satone followed in close second place with 45, and Omata Shion won bronze after having reached hold 42+. In the previous round, all three had managed to top the men’s semi-final route.

Finishing in fourth position in his first final participation was home favourite Max Bertone, who closed with the same score as Omata, 42+ and slipped to fourth on countback. Also at 42+ was German veteran Sebastian Halenke, who took fifth place due to his inferior semifinal score.

Three more Japanese climbers finished in the bottom three position of the final: Ishizu Mototaka concluded sixth with 41+, Tanaka Shuta followed in seventh with 39, and Imaizumi Yuta closed in eighth with 38+.

This is Murashita's first gold medal and after the event he commented "I’m very happy, this result is a bit surprising to me. I was able to climb to my limit, and climb very well."

Also winning her first World Cup gold medal ever was 27-year-old Kotake Mei, who managed to climb to hold 49+ to win her 25th Lead World Cup participation.

Kotake, who won bronze at the World Cup in Chamonix, France, only a few days ago, concluded in front of Italy’s Laura Rogora who won silver after falling off hold 45. Third place went to Austria’s Mattea Pötzi, who claimed her first-ever World Cup medal after qualifying for her third consecutive Lead final.

Rosa Rekar of Slovenia placed fourth, Jain Kim of South Korea fifth, Aleksandra Totkova of Bulgaria sixth, Natsumi Oda of Japan seventh and Floa Oblasser of Austria eighth.

"I still can’t believe I have won my first gold. It’s been a long journey for me to get on the World Cup podium. With many of the top climbers not competing, I thought it was my time to win, and I’m happy I made it," an emotional Kotake said moments before the podium.

The IFSC World Cup Series 2024 will return in September with events in Koper, Slovenia, from 6 to 7; and Prague, Czechia, from 20 to 22.

Full results: www.ifsc-climbing.org