Natalia Grossman, Mejdi Schalck climb to spectacular Boulder World Cup victory in Salt Lake City

Precisely a year ago Adam Ondra described Mejdi Schalck as "the future of climbing" after the young French climber placed second in Salt Lake City in only his second senior World Cup event. Ondra's prediction proved spot on because the exuberant future is well and truly here now after the 18-year-old powered his way to his first-ever World Cup victory yesterday, back in his favourite haunt SLC, after beating Yoshiyuki Ogata and 18-year-old Rei Kawamata, second and third respectively.

Schalck had qualified 6th for the finals and, climbing first, he upped his game to finish with four tops and four zones in 9 attempts, while Ogata needed 2 attempts more to secure the same tops. This is his third podium this season after placing second in Meiringen and third in Seoul, meaning that he currently leads the provisional ranking, ahead of teammate Tomoa Narasaki who narrowly missed out on the finals.

Austria’s Nicolai Uznik finished fourth, Germany’s Yannick Flohé fifth, and Austria’s Jakob Schubert completed the lineup in what can only be a somewhat disappointing sixth place, after having been the only athlete to send all four problems in the semifinals a few hours earlier.

As the evening progressed the temperatures dropped considerably for the women’s event, and home favourite Natalia Grossman put in an extremely impressive display of power and technique to secure her second consecutive gold. Like almost all the finalists she had topped three problems in the Semifinals, while in the finals she flashed two of the four problems and eventually closed the round being the only finalists with four tops.

Teammate Brooke Raboutou won silver with three tops and four zones, ahead of Tokyo 2020 Olympic silver medallist Miho Nonaka who needed four more attempts to score the same 3 tops and 4 zones. Jessica Pilz put in a determined effort on boulder #1 and sent it after 11 attempts and literally 1 second before the buzzer, but she eventually had to settle for fourth place, just ahead of Austrian teammate Franziska Sterrer fifth respectively, ahead of Camilla Moroni of Italy, sixth.

1 Natalia Grossman USA 4t4z 9 9
2 Brooke Raboutou USA 3t4z 5 14
3 Miho Nonaka JPN 3t4z 9 18
4 Jessica Pilz AUT 3t4z 16 19
5 Franziska Sterrer AUT 1t3z 1 7
6 Camilla Moroni ITA 1t3z 2 21
7 Oriane Bertone FRA
8 Stasa Gejo SRB
9 Futaba Ito JPN
10 Alannah Yip CAN
11 Kylie Cullen USA
12 Giorgia Tesio ITA
13 Hannah Meul GER
14 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR
15 Nanako Kura JPN
16 Cloe Coscoy USA
17 Adriene Clark USA
18 Afra Hönig GER
19 Laura Rogora ITA
20 Johanna Färber AUT
21 Mia Aoyagi JPN
21 Ayala Kerem ISR
23 Sofya Yokoyama SUI
23 Sienna Kopf USA
25 Quinn Mason USA
25 Petra Klingler SUI
27 Katja Debevec SLO
27 Roxana Wienand GER
29 Holly Toothill GBR
29 Leonie Lochner GER
31 Hannah Slaney GBR
31 Babette Roy CAN
33 Indiana Chapman CAN
33 Tara Hayes GBR
35 Aida Torres Illamola ESP
35 Emily Herdic USA
37 Maya Madere USA
37 Vanessa Si Yinn Teng SGP
39 Evangelina Briggs CAN
39 Anon Matsufuji JPN
41 Yuetong Zhang CHN
41 Melina Costanza USA
43 Campbell Sarinopoulos USA
43 Valentina Aguado ARG
45 Hana Koike JPN
45 Jennifer Wood GBR
47 Emi Takashiba CAN
47 Arantza Fernández Gutierrez MEX
49 Sandra Hopfensitz GER
49 Valeria Macias Ferreira MEX
51 Tan Shi Hui SGP
51 Alejandra Contreras CHI
53 María Fernanda González Rámirez MEX
53 Zoe Garcia Molina ARG
55 Elizabeth Sepulveda PUR
55 Grace Crowley AUS
57 Siobhan Dobie AUS
57 María Fernanda Hidalgo Amezquita MEX
Valeriia Koryttseva UKR

1 Mejdi Schalck FRA 4t4z 9 6
2 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 4t4z 11 10
3 Rei Kawamata JPN 3t4z 14 12
4 Nicolai Uznik AUT 2t3z 8 10
5 Yannick Flohé GER 1t4z 1 10
6 Jakob Schubert AUT 1t2z 1 6
7 Tomoa Narasaki JPN
8 Anze Peharc SLO
9 Sean Bailey USA
10 Ross Fulkerson USA
11 Alberto Ginés López ESP
12 Keita Dohi JPN
13 Maximillian Milne GBR
14 Kokoro Fujii JPN
15 Guy Mcnamee CAN
16 Max Kleesattel GER
17 Hamish Mcarthur GBR
18 Simon Hibbeler USA
19 Alex Khazanov ISR
20 Charles Barron USA
21 Tomoaki Takata JPN
21 Colin Duffy USA
23 Yotam Ben Reuven ISR
23 Ellis Ernsberger USA
25 Zan Lovenjak Sudar SLO
25 Paul Jenft FRA
27 Alex Waterhouse GBR
27 Kento Yamaguchi JPN
29 Yuji Inoue JPN
29 Sascha Lehmann SUI
29 Benjamin Hanna USA
32 Elias Arriagada Krüger GER
33 Victor Baudrand CAN
33 Gregor Vezonik SLO
35 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
35 Nimrod Marcus ISR
37 William Ridal GBR
37 Lucas Uchida CAN
39 Christoph Schweiger GER
39 Sean Mccoll CAN
41 Nathan Phillips GBR
41 Palmer Larsen USA
43 Joe Goodacre USA
43 Satone Yoshida JPN
45 Luke Goh Wen Bin SGP
45 Oscar Baudrand CAN
47 Carmel Raz Romeo ISR
47 Nino Grünenfelder SUI
49 Zach Galla USA
49 Chua Dennis SGP
51 Benjamin Vargas CHI
51 Nils Favre SUI
53 Ardch Intrachupongse THA
53 Christopher Cosser RSA
55 Rodrigo Iasi Hanada BRA
55 Julien Clémence SUI
57 Michael O'neill IRL
57 Ciarán Scanlon IRL
59 Lasse Von Freier GER
59 Calrin Curtis RSA
61 Felipe Ho Foganholo BRA
61 Roman Batsenko UKR
63 Mateus Rodrigues Bellotto BRA
63 Jesse Grupper USA
65 Lucas Pedroza Diaz De León MEX
65 Ronny Escobar CHI
67 José Alejandro Sauceda Rodríguez MEX
67 Pedro Avelar BRA
69 Franz Josef Weber MEX