Oriane Bertone & Toby Roberts qualify for Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Les jeux sont fait. A few minutes ago at Laval in France Oriane Bertone and Toby Roberts won the European Qualifier Boulder & Lead and, in doing so, earned the coveted Olympic quota places for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Both wins were utterly convincing and came after extremely impressive performances in yesterday's Semifinals which indicated that they had peaked at just the right moment.

Bertone laid the groundwork for her victory in the Boulder round, where she was the only athlete to send all four problems. Remarkably, she flashed three of them and needed just two goes for the top on problem #2, gaining a nigh perfect score of 99.9 points. Stasa Gejo trailed in provisional second with 3 problems and 84.5 points, while Ievgeniia Kazbekova's 2 problems put her in provisional third at 69.6 points.

40 minutes later it was time for the Lead event, and Kazbekova climbed to hold 34+ to finish second overall, while Laura Rogora climbed highest of all to reach hold 40+ and finish third. Bertone, last out and climbing on home soil, was under immense pressure to perform yet she kept it together just when it counted most. Her highpoint at 34 was more than enough to secure overall victory and, most importantly, a ticket to Paris 2024. The crowd went delirious and for a long time there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

The men's final followed a few hours later and Roberts immediately put in a surprisingly strong performance in the Boulder round, placing provisional second ahead of more decorated experts such as Adam Ondra, Yannick Flohé and Mejdi Schalck. Only Sam Avezou did better - significantly so actually - and his 15 point lead put him in a commanding position for the Lead round. Unfortunately for him he fell low, not much higher than Nicolai Uznik and Filip Schenk, which meant that in the end he had to settle for third place. For a long time Flohé's highpoint at hold 43 seemed the maximum, but eventually he was ousted from the top spot when Olympic champion Alberto Gines Lopez fell off hold 40. At this point only two athletes remained: Adam Ondra and Toby Roberts. Ondra climbed with his usual drive but on hold 40, looking fresh, his foot suddenly slipped and he plummeted to 4th place overall. Roberts was last out and he climbed with the maturity and skill far beyond his mere 18 years of age. What came next was a true masterclass in climbing. He fumbled only once, low down on the figure of four move, but then powered on smoothly where everyone else failed. As he reached Lopez's highpoint the stadium erupted in joy but Roberts continued undisturbed past some small crimps to the final dyno. And then on to the top. And next year to the Paris Olympic Games.