Laura Rogora, Adam Ondra claim historic victory at Briançon Lead World Cup

This is a historic moment for Italian sport climbing: after months of hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic, yesterday at Briançon in France Laura Rogora showed her immense talent by winning the first, and probably only, stage of the Lead World Cup 2020. The 19-year-old Roman climber topped out in the final just like the undisputed queen of lead competitions Janja Garnbret had a few minutes earlier, and the two were separated on countback to the Semifinal where the Italian had seemed in a league of her own. Rogora’s first-ever senior Lead World Cup victory had been in the making for a while given her amazing performances in the Youth competitions, but senior competitions are obviously an entirely different ballgame. Just to give you an idea about how important last night was to Italian climbing: the only other Italian woman to have won a stage of a Lead World Cup is Luisa Iovane, who achieved this exceptional result in Yalta back in 1989 when she finished second overall in the Lead World Cup’s debut year.

So: Rogora claimed gold and Garnbret silver, while bouldering specialist Fanny Gibert delighted the home crowd to win bronze. 2018 Lead World Champion Jessica Pilz placed fourth, Vita Lukan fifth, Tjasa Kalan sixth and Nina Arthaud seventh. And eighth? Eighth place went to Italy’s Giorgia Tesia who, incredulous, found herself competing in the senior Lead World Cup final for the very first time. Her sheer joy demonstrated clearly how important this completion was for Italian sport climbing.

In the men's competition Domen Škofic dictated the pace. After a "sabbatical" year away from competitions the Slovenian returned stronger and above all more motivated than ever before and set an impressive highpoint two holds below the top. Luka Potocar placed fourth, Mathias Posch sixth, Mejdi Schalck seventh and Nao Monchois eighth, and when Alexander Megos plummeted to fifth place and even Jakob Schubert fell below Škofic’s highpoint, it became clear that the 26-year-old had climbed to perfection.

The only athlete who could do better than Škofic was the last out, Adam Ondra, who demonstrated in front of 5,000 strong capacity crowd why he is often referred to as the best climber in the world. Concentrated and absolutely psyched the Czech literally flew upwards, stopping only for a brief moment where Škofic had fallen to gather his thoughts before making an impossible-looking shoulder move and sticking the nonexistent top hold to take home his 15th Lead World Cup victory. Ondra’s joy was irrepressible and this gold joins an impressive, seemingly unstoppable run of victories that include, in just one season, gold at the World Championships, the European Championship and the Lead World Cup 2019. Even if the world seems to have changed beyond recognition in the last few months one thing has remained constant: wonder Ondra.

An emotional finale
The closing act of the competition saw IFSC President Marco Scolaris, FFME President Pierre You, Climbers Against Cancer Ambassador Sheila McCarron, French athlete Nao Monchois, and the family of Luce Douady pay homage to the young climber that tragically died on June 14. Luce’s family donated a 7.500 euros cheque to CAC, each of the speakers remembered her with a speech, and the tribute concluded with Luce’s own words, read by her father:

"I picture myself clipping the anchor, and there’s a great release, I feel a joy that I can’t conceal; a joy that’s so pure, so true, so strong inside of me, that it has to spill out… I spread it everywhere: to each face, each person I meet, I pass on my love of life and my cheerfulness."

1 Laura Rogora ITA top
2 Janja Garnbret SLO top
3 Fanny Gibert FRA 42
4 Jessica Pilz AUT 41+
5 Vita Lukan SLO 39+
6 Tjasa Kalan SLO 39+
7 Nina Arthaud FRA 34+
8 Giorgia Tesio ITA 30+
9 Lucija Tarkus SLO 24+
10 Julia Fiser AUT
11 Camille Pouget FRA
12 Julia Chanourdie FRA
13 Eliska Adamovska CZE
14 Christine Schranz AUT
15 Claudia Ghisolfi ITA
16 Heloïse Doumont BEL
17 Tjasa Slemensek SLO
18 Salomé Romain FRA
19 Nolwenn Arc FRA
20 Lucie Watillon BEL
21 Hannah Meul GER
21 Ina Plassoux Djiga FRA
23 Ilaria Scolaris ITA
24 Martina Demmel GER
25 Lana Skusek SLO
26 Marketa Janosova CZE
27 Roxana Wienand GER
28 Lucia Dörffel GER
29 Agathe Calliet FRA
30 Michaela Smetanova CZE
31 Luisa Flohé GER
32 Colette Bobenrieth FRA
33 Silvia Cassol ITA
34 Stasa Gejo SRB
34 Ana Belén Argudo Marugan ESP
36 Eva Maria Hammelmüller AUT
37 Mattea Pötzi AUT
38 Saula Lerondel FRA
39 Nikola Kralikova CZE
40 Maria Benach Zubero ESP
41 Aida Torres Illamola ESP
42 Tereza Širůčková CZE
43 Bianca Magalhaes De Castro BRA

1 Adam Ondra CZE top
2 Domen Škofic SLO 41
3 Jakob Schubert AUT 38+
4 Luka Potocar SLO 30
5 Alexander Megos GER 27
6 Mathias Posch AUT 26
7 Mejdi Schalck FRA 25+
8 Nao Monchois FRA 25+
9 Hugo Parmentier FRA
10 Paul Jenft FRA
11 Rishat Khaibullin KAZ
12 Sam Avezou FRA
13 Diego Fourbet FRA
14 Jakub Konecny CZE
15 Marcello Bombardi ITA
16 Alistair Duval FRA
17 Jeremy Bonder FRA
18 Alberto Ginés López ESP
19 Philipp Martin GER
20 Leo Avezou FRA
21 Filip Schenk ITA
22 Christoph Hanke GER
23 Yannick Flohé GER
24 Martin Stranik CZE
25 Loïc Timmermans BEL
26 Davide Marco Colombo ITA
27 Adrien Lemaire FRA
28 Francesco Vettorata ITA
29 Simon Potucek CZE
29 Jan Hojer GER
31 Nicolas Collin BEL
32 Ziga Zajc SLO
33 Ties Vancraeynest BEL
34 Mikel Asier Linacisoro Molina ESP
35 Max Kleesattel GER
36 Martin Bergant SLO
37 Stefan Scherz AUT
38 Arno Luypaert BEL
39 Héctor Bazan Martín ESP
40 Milan Preskar SLO
41 Georg Parma AUT
42 Ludovico Fossali ITA
42 Stepan Potucek CZE
42 Sven Lempereur BEL