Lead World Cup 2018: Jessica Pilz and Domen Škofic win last stage in Xiamen

The curtain fell on the Lead World Cup 2018 last weekend at Xiamen in China, won as previously reported one stage ahead of schedule by Janja Garnbret and Jakob Schubert. Season’s silver had also already been secured by Jessica Pilz and Stefano Ghisolf, while Jain Kim had won bronze, but in the men’s event the 3rd place was still up for grabs.

Domen Škofic won the seventh and last stage and, in doing so, returned to his winning form after a two-year podium absence to end the season on a high. Last to climb, the Slovenian fell just below the top off the same hold as Italy’s Stefano Ghisolfi and the two were separated on countback, while Hyunbin Min finished third. Skofic’s victory catapulted him somewhat unexpectedly tie for overall bronze with France’s Romain Desgranges.

Interestingly, this season’s winner Schubert failed to qualify for the finals for the first time since October 2014. That’s something like 25 Lead World Cup Finals in a row… How things might have turned out in the overall rankings had the finals in Wujiang a week previously not been cancelled is anyone’s guess, but the fact of the matter is that this season the 27-year-old proved unbeatable: winner of the Lead World Cup for the fourth time, winner of the Lead World Championship, Combined World Champion and Combined World Cup winner. It's nigh impossible to do any better.

As previously mentioned, in the women’s event Garnbret, Pilz and Kim had already secured 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, and in Xiamen Pilz climbed to victory for the second time ever. After unlocking the key and initiating her victory march earlier this season in Chamonix, and then winning the World Championship in Innsbruck, Pilz managed to beat Garnbret for a third time in 2018, once again by the smallest of margins. Both topped out in the finals and the Austrian took victory on countback to semi-finals in which she claimed the routes only top. Akiyo Noguchi proved her timeless dexterity and placed third.

The 2018 Speed World Cup drew to a close as the 8th event really did go down to the wire, with four male athletes gunning for the overall title. In the end Bassa Mawem climbed fastest of all to win both the stage in China and season’s gold, and he was joined on the podium by Dmitrii Timofeev and Danyil Boldyrev. Mawem’s victory demonstrated how quick France has become in recent years; his team-mate Anouck Jaubert had secured her second consentire gold last weekend. The women’s event was won by Susanti Rahayu who, in beating Jaubert, took season’s silver, while Iuliia Kaplina took bronze.

Xiamen China
Women
1 Jessica Pilz AUT Top
2 Janja Garnbret SLO Top
3 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 43+
4 Mia Krampl SLO 37+
5 Mei Kotake JPN 36+
6 Mina Markovic SLO 35
7 Tjasa Kalan SLO 32
8 Aika Tajima JPN 30+
9 Christine Schranz AUT
10 Jain Kim KOR
11 Hannah Schubert AUT
12 Futaba Ito JPN
13 Julia Fiser AUT
14 Manon Hily FRA
15 Aya Onoe JPN
16 Fanny Gibert FRA
17 Heloïse Doumont BEL
18 Dinara Fakhritdinova RUS
19 Miu Kurita JPN
20 Tina Johnsen Hafsaas NOR
21 Katharina Posch AUT
22 HongChun Xiang CHN
23 Oceania Mackenzie AUS
24 Hsiu-Ju Lin TPE
25 Gayeon Cho KOR
26 Anna Tsyganova RUS
27 Anouck Jaubert FRA
28 Emma Palmer USA
29 Rebecca Frangos CAN
30 Thea Wulff USA
31 Ka-yan Wong HKG
32 Isabelle Hare AUS
33 Patrycja Chudziak POL
34 Klaudia Buczek POL
35 Anna Brozek POL

Men
1 Domen Skofic SLO 45+
2 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 45+
3 Hyunbin Min KOR 38+
4 Hidemasa Nishida JPN 23
5 Taisei Homma JPN 20+
6 Romain Desgranges FRA 20+
7 Yuki Hada JPN 20+
8 Sascha Lehmann SUI 20+
9 Fedir Samoilov UKR
10 Nicolas Collin BEL
11 Tomoa Narasaki JPN
12 Loïc Timmermans BEL
13 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
14 Max Rudigier AUT
15 Francesco Vettorata ITA
16 Jakob Schubert AUT
17 Georg Parma AUT
18 Marcello Bombardi ITA
19 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
20 HaiBin Qu CHN
21 Elan Jonasmcrae CAN
22 Minoru Nakano JPN
23 Masahiro Higuchi JPN
24 Martin Kuhnel USA
25 Taito Nakagami JPN
26 Rahul Sapra CAN
27 John Brosler USA
28 Brandon Barraclough CAN
29 Wan Jae Jo KOR
30 Aidan Doyle CAN
31 Marcin Dzienski POL
32 Ka-chun Yau HKG

Lead World Cup 2018 - final ranking
Women
1 Janja Garnbret SLO 550.00
2 Jessica Pilz AUT 505.00
3 Jain Kim KOR 354.00
4 Manon Hily FRA 238.00
5 Mei Kotake JPN 228.00
6 Tjasa Kalan SLO 224.00
7 Hannah Schubert AUT 219.00
8 Mina Markovic SLO 214.00
8 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 214.00
10 Mia Krampl SLO 211.00
11 Anak Verhoeven BEL 181.00
12 Katharina Posch AUT 174.00
13 Ashima Shiraishi USA 159.00
14 Christine Schranz AUT 141.00
15 Aya Onoe JPN 131.00
16 Vita Lukan SLO 124.00
17 Hélène Janicot FRA 106.00
18 Tina Johnsen Hafsaas NOR 105.00
19 Julia Fiser AUT 101.00
20 Anne-Sophie Koller SUI 100.00
21 Natsumi Hirano JPN 89.00
22 Heloïse Doumont BEL 82.00
23 Miho Nonaka JPN 80.00
24 Futaba Ito JPN 75.00
25 Claire Buhrfeind USA 69.00
26 Katherine Choong SUI 55.00
27 Julia Chanourdie FRA 52.00
28 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR 51.00
29 Nolwenn Arc FRA 48.00
30 Salomé Romain FRA 45.00
31 Aika Tajima JPN 40.00
32 Miu Kurita JPN 39.00
33 Fanny Gibert FRA 38.00
34 Laura Rogora ITA 37.00
35 Stasa Gejo SRB 35.00
36 Nolwen Berthier FRA 27.00
37 Lana Skusek SLO 25.00
38 Yuki Hiroshige JPN 24.00
39 Dinara Fakhritdinova RUS 23.00
40 Mathilde Becerra FRA 22.00
40 Oceania Mackenzie AUS 22.00
42 HongChun Xiang CHN 21.00
43 Molly Thompson-Smith GBR 20.00
44 Katja Kadic SLO 19.00
44 Lucka Rakovec SLO 19.00
46 Nina Arthaud FRA 18.00
46 Seuran Han KOR 18.00
48 Michelle Hulliger SUI 17.00
49 Lan Kim KOR 16.00
50 Iuliia Panteleeva RUS 11.00
51 Anna Tsyganova RUS 10.00
52 Iva Vejmolova CZE 9.00
53 Camille Pouget FRA 8.00
54 Ekaterina Kipriianova RUS 7.00
54 Ida Kups POL 7.00
54 Hsiu-Ju Lin TPE 7.00
57 Maëlys Agrapart FRA 6.00
57 ZhuoYing Chen CHN 6.00
57 Gayeon Cho KOR 6.00
57 Rebecca Frangos CAN 6.00
57 Anouck Jaubert FRA 6.00
57 Petra Klingler SUI 6.00
57 Brooke Raboutou USA 6.00
57 Moe Yoshimura JPN 6.00
65 Laura Stöckler AUT 4.00
66 Vanda Michalkova SVK 3.00
66 Emma Palmer USA 3.00
66 Nikki Van Bergen NED 3.00
69 Tjasa Slemensek SLO 2.00
70 Claudia Ghisolfi ITA 1.00
70 Iqomah Nurul INA 1.00
70 Magdalena Röck AUT 1.00
70 Thea Wulff USA 1.00

Men
1 Jakob Schubert AUT 495.00
2 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 466.00
3 Romain Desgranges FRA 356.00
3 Domen Skofic SLO 356.00
5 Hyunbin Min KOR 251.00
6 Alexander Megos GER 230.00
7 Taisei Homma JPN 217.00
8 Sascha Lehmann SUI 206.00
9 Yuki Hada JPN 192.00
10 Francesco Vettorata ITA 168.00
11 Marcello Bombardi ITA 154.00
11 Hidemasa Nishida JPN 154.00
13 Max Rudigier AUT 141.00
14 Masahiro Higuchi JPN 133.00
15 Shuta Tanaka JPN 127.00
16 Tomoa Narasaki JPN 124.00
17 Fedir Samoilov UKR 116.00
18 Sean Bailey USA 103.00
19 Minoru Nakano JPN 99.00
20 Thomas Joannes FRA 94.00
21 William Bosi GBR 92.00
22 Hiroto Shimizu JPN 91.00
23 Hannes Puman SWE 87.00
24 Kokoro Fujii JPN 86.00
25 Loïc Timmermans BEL 80.00
26 Sean Mccoll CAN 77.00
27 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 74.00
28 Taito Nakagami JPN 73.00
29 Jakub Konecny CZE 62.00
30 Nicolas Collin BEL 61.00
31 Adam Ondra CZE 55.00
32 Yannick Flohé GER 48.00
32 Georg Parma AUT 48.00
34 Alberto Ginés López ESP 43.00
35 HaiBin Qu CHN 39.00
36 Kai Harada JPN 36.00
37 Luka Potocar SLO 32.00
38 Ramón Julian Puigblanque ESP 31.00
39 Sebastian Halenke GER 29.00
39 James Pope GBR 29.00
41 Hanwool Kim KOR 26.00
42 Elan Jonasmcrae CAN 20.00
43 Keita Dohi JPN 18.00
43 David Firnenburg GER 18.00
45 Martin Kuhnel USA 16.00
45 Nao Monchois FRA 16.00
47 Jan Hojer GER 15.00
48 Michael Piccolruaz ITA 14.00
49 Sam Avezou FRA 12.00
49 Gautier Supper FRA 12.00
51 Yuval Shemla ISR 9.00
52 John Brosler USA 8.00
52 Javier Cano Blazquez ESP 8.00
52 Wan Jae Jo KOR 8.00
52 Kai Lightner USA 8.00
56 Jorg Verhoeven NED 6.00
57 Romaric Geffroy FRA 5.00
57 Jernej Kruder SLO 5.00
57 Alfian Muhammad INA 5.00
57 Rahul Sapra CAN 5.00
61 Martin Bergant SLO 4.00
61 Aidan Doyle CAN 4.00
61 Rudolph Ruana USA 4.00
64 Brandon Barraclough CAN 3.00
64 Arsène Duval FRA 3.00
66 Hamish Mcarthur GBR 2.00
66 Milan Preskar SLO 2.00
66 Pangeran Septo Wibowo Siburian INA 2.00
69 Jeremy Bonder FRA 1.00
69 Aspar Jaelolo INA 1.00
69 Mathias Posch AUT 1.00
69 Dimitri Vogt SUI 1.00