Mina Markovic and Ramòn Julien Puigblanque take gold at European Lead Championship in Chamonix

21 World Cup victories, 7 Rock Master wins, two World Championship titles and, as of Sunday evening, European Champion for the third time. This, in a nutshell, is Ramon Julien Puigblanque, the 33-year old who last weekend in France showed everyone that the "Puigblanque reign" still rules supreme. After 15 years at the top of the game - bar last season’s glitch - the Catalan is evidently still a force to be reckoned with. His victory in Chamonix was deserved, although he himself admitted surprise since his sensations in the qualifiers and the Semis weren’t the best, so much so that he had qualified second from last for the final. The last, and therefore the first to kick off the evening competition, was Sebastian Halenke, the 20-year-old German who climbed carefree and light, like someone who had nothing to lose. Being in the final was already a dream come true, his climb really did seem like an easy warm-up lap and when he fell two holds below the final jug many wondered if the route was perhaps too easy. Also because he was immediately followed by king Puigblanque: after a wobbly start the Spaniard recovered, somehow held the five red slopers on the final boulder problem and made a long lunge to the finishing hold, grasping it but failing to control the swing. Stefano Ghisolfi then climbed with class and determination and did well until he suddenly slipped, perhaps betrayed by one of those new footholds that nobody knew. Jakob Schubert seemed on fighting form, too, but was forced to surrender surprisingly early, just one hold higher than the Italian. Adam Ondra, the reigning Lead and Boulde World Champion, delighted the absolutely packed Chamonix square with his usual speed, taking risks to shoot up to the last hard moves where unlike Puigblanque he didn’t match on the penultimate hold, but instead tried to cross-through… his desperate dyno finished in mid-air. At this point only three athletes were left: France’s Gautier Supper, his teammate and reigning European Champion Romain Desgranges and the strong Russian Dmitrii Fakirianov who in the Semi-finals had seemed a cut above the others. But for all of these it wasn’t to be: Supper slipped off a crimp, Desgranges produced a stellar performance to reach the final moves completely fresh only to then ‘explode' on two moves, while the Russian probably failed to withstand the pressure and got undone halfway up the route.

In the women's competition the absolute leading lights were the two Slovenians Mina Markovic and Janja Garnbret, two different generations that on Sunday night showed everyone once again that the Slovenian 'school' is well and truly at the forefront of this sport. 27-year-old Markovic, the woman of a thousand battles, topped out of the final route thanks to her raw strength and utter determination, while watching Garnbret it was easy to comprehend why the 16-year-old is referred to as the future of sport climbing. Her graceful ascent to the top was a masterstroke and she only didn’t win gold because of countback to the first round: her result in the qualifiers was inferior to that of Markovic. Garnbret’s time will come, no doubt very soon indeed. In the meantime though Markovic proved that experience still counts and that her desire to win this battle of nerves is still unfathomable. The Slovenians were followed into third place by another rising star, young Austrian Jessica Pilz who also topped out in the Semis, and while Anak Verhoeven placed fourth, the last athlete in the competition - Korea’s Jain Kim - placed fifth. Yes, because Chamonix also counted as the first stage of the Lead World Cup 2015. On Sunday evening however, the reigning World Champion and winner of 22 World Cups failed to live up to expectations and placed 5th, ahead of France’s Hélène Janicot, Russia’s Dinara Fakhritdinova and Japan's Aya Onoe, 6th, 7th and 8th respectively.

What remains to be mentioned are the other competitions that took place during this intense weekend in Chamonix. The Speed ​​World Cup was won by the favorite, France’s Anouck Jaubert, who beat Iuliia Kaplina as the Russian fell in the finals after having beat her previous best to set a new world record and stop the clock after 7: 53 seconds. In the men's final Libor Hroza (CZE) and Danyil Boldyrev (UKR) produced an exceptional, identical time and in the ensuing second race Boldyrev made a false start. In the Paraclimbing Cup Alessia Refolo and Matteo Stefani won the visual impairment B2 category, Elodie Orbaen and Mathieu Esnard the Neurological Physical Disability A category, Urko Carmona Barandiaran the amputee leg PD category and András Szijarto the Neurological Physical Disability B category.

LEAD MEN
1 Ramón Julian Puigblanque ESP 53+
2 Adam Ondra CZE 52+
3 Sebastian Halenke GER 52
4 Romain Desgranges FRA 51+
5 Gautier Supper FRA 43+
6 Jakob Schubert AUT 39+
7 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 38+
8 Dmitrii Fakirianov RUS 29+

LEAD WOMEN
1 Mina Markovic SLO Top
2 Janja Garnbret SLO Top
3 Jessica Pilz AUT 47
4 Anak Verhoeven BEL 45+
5 Jain Kim KOR 43+
6 Hélène Janicot FRA 42+
7 Dinara Fakhritdinova RUS 32+
8 Aya Onoe JPN 26+

SPEED MEN
1 Libor Hroza CZE 99.99
2 Danyil Boldyrev UKR 2. false start
3 Qixin Zhong CHN
4 Marcin Dzienski POL

SPEED WOMEN
1 Anouck Jaubert FRA 7.81
2 Iuliia Kaplina RUS fall
3 Mariia Krasavina RUS
4 Anna Tsyganova RUS