Slovenians supreme in Russia, Janja Garnbret and Jernej Kruder win Bouldering World Cup in Moscow

Moscow hosted the second stage of the Bouldering World Cup 2019 last weekend and all eyes were on Janja Garnbret and Adam Ondra, winners in Meiringen a week ago. Meiringen finalists Akiyo Noguchi and Rei Sugimoto were notable for their absence, and the qualifiers produced some surprising upsets: Jakob Schubert, Sean McColl, Stefano Gisolfi all failed to make the cut, as did Domen Skofic and Marcello Bombardi after both failing to top a single problem.

The women’s Semis proved brutally difficult with only Shauna Coxsey and Janja Garnbret sending 2 problems and only another 3 athletes sending just 1. But this is exactly what many of the world’s best have been calling for. In contrast, the women’s finals proved quite the opposite with a disproportionate number of tops and a tense battle of nerves where the athletes knew that every attempt would mean the difference between victory and defeat.

Janja Garnbret, Fanny Gilbert and Shauna Coxesy all got off to a great start by flashing problem #1, while problem #2 was set surprisingly easy for a World Cup final and flashed by all 6 finalists. Lucka Rakovec, in her debut Senior World Cup and normally a Lead climber, then proved that the depth of talent in Slovenia is simply unfathomable for a country with a population of 2 million people by flashing problem #3, a feat that was emulated by teammate Janja Garnbret a few minutes later. Coxesy failed on her first attempt and her second-go top of problem #3 meant that she slipped into second, behind Garnbret and ahead of Fanny Gilbert. When Futaba Ito sent problem #4 third go and Rakovec smoothly flashed it, it was clear that the finals would be decided by the smallest of margins. And so it was: Garnbret, Gilbert and Rakovec all flashed the last problem, while Coxsey needed two attempts. Garnbret took victory therefore with a perfect score of 4 tops in 4 attempts, Coxsey took silver with 4 tops in 6 attempts and Gilbert, with Coxsey’s identical score, slipped into third on countback. Rakovec celebrated her debut with an amazing 4th place, Jessica Pilz settled for fifth and Futaba Ito for sixth.

In the men’s competition Adam Ondra had made it through the Saturday morning qualifiers by the skin of his teeth, landing last in 20th place, but in the Semis he more than made up for it and, first out, set the bar unbeatably high. He was the only athlete to top out of all 4 problems; 2 problems more than the others who qualified for the finals in the afternoon. Last out in the finals therefore, Ondra immediately took the lead by flashing #1, while a few minutes earlier Yoshiyuki Ogata had sent it on his second go as had Jernej Kruder. Problem #2 was flashed by this trio with Anze Peharc trailing close behind, ahead of 16-year-old Rei Kawamata in only his second senior World Cup and home favourite Vadim Timonov. Kruder, who failed to qualify for the finals in Switzerland last week, was determined to keep the pressure on and he sent #3 fourth go, but Ogata responded and needed just two attempts to take the provisional lead. Not to be left out, Ondra then needed three attempts to take the provisional lead once again. The last problem looked hugely burley and when it was flashed with startling ease by Kruder, many believed the setters had misjudged the difficulties completely. Appearances, as always, can be deceptive and Kruder’s inspirational ascent proved to be the only top on problem #4, paving the way for a well-deserved victory with a score of 4 tops in 8 attempts. Ondra battled hard and even changed his shoe for better heel-hooking power, but eventually settled for silver with 3 tops in 5 attempts, while Ogata took bronze with 3 tops in 6 attempts. Disregarding his victory in the 2017 World Games in Poland, this is Ogata’s best international performance to date.

The first stage of the new Speed World Cup took place on Friday evening and was won, for the first time ever in her career, by China’s YiLing Song who beat French champion Anouck Jaubert, and by the current world no. 1 Bassa Mawem who beat home favourite Vladislav Deulin.

RESULTS MEN MOSCOW 2019
1 Janja Garnbret SLO 4T4z44
2 Shauna Coxsey GBR 4T4z66
3 Fanny Gibert FRA 4T4z66
4 Lucka Rakovec SLO 3T4z35
5 Jessica Pilz AUT 3T4z910
6 Futaba Ito JPN 3T3z66
7 Sol Sa KOR
8 Petra Klingler SUI
9 Alannah Yip CAN
10 Emily Phillips GBR
10 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR
12 Sandra Lettner AUT
13 YueTong Zhang CHN
14 Irina Kuzmenko RUS
14 Afra Hönig GER
16 Kyra Condie USA
17 Natalia Grossman USA
17 Johanna Färber AUT
19 Katja Kadic SLO
20 Berit Schwaiger AUT
21 Sienna Kopf USA
21 Viktoriia Meshkova RUS
23 Mao Nakamura JPN
23 Elnaz Rekabi IRI
25 Chloe Caulier BEL
25 Alex Johnson USA
27 Naile Meignan FRA
27 Sofya Yokoyama SUI
29 Mia Krampl SLO
29 Jennifer Wood GBR
31 Julia Chanourdie FRA
31 Anna Zaikina RUS
33 Natsumi Hirano JPN
33 Andrea Kümin SUI
35 Hung Ying Lee TPE
35 Anna Margolina RUS
37 Jain Kim KOR
37 Laura Rogora ITA
39 Valentina Aguado ARG
39 Alma Bestvater GER
41 Maëlys Agrapart FRA
41 Manon Hily FRA
43 Vanda Michalkova SVK
43 Mattea Pötzi AUT
45 Sierra Blair-Coyle USA
45 Hannah Meul GER
47 Luiza Emeleva RUS
47 Elena Krasovskaya RUS
47 Anna Tsyganova RUS
50 Joanna Neame GBR
51 Anne-Sophie Koller SUI
51 Julia Pinggera AUT
53 Mahya Darabian IRI
53 Tiba Vroom NED
55 Flora Froese AUS
55 Nanako Kura JPN
57 Leonie Lochner GER
57 Iuliia Panteleeva RUS
59 Evgeniya Lapshina RUS
59 LINDA Sjödin SWE
59 YiLing Song CHN
62 Vera Zijlstra NED
63 Tamara Ulzhabayeva KAZ
63 Katrine Vandet Salling DEN
65 Rong Jiang CHN
65 Virgita Nadya Putri INA
67 Heloïse Doumont BEL
67 Anouck Jaubert FRA
67 Heeyeon Park KOR
70 Julia Meijer NED
71 Anastasiia Evgeneva RUS
71 Natalia Kalucka POL
73 Katrin Amann SWE
73 Aliaksandra Misiukevich BLR
75 ZhuoYing Chen CHN
75 Salsabila Salsabila INA
77 Nasim Biyarjomandy IRI
77 Iqamah Nurul INA
77 Nikki Van Bergen NED
77 Wai-ping Yu HKG
81 Aleksandra Kalucka POL
82 Elena Veretennikova BLR
83 Valiantsina Chamiakina BLR
83 Andrea Rojas ECU
85 Assel Marlenova KAZ
85 Choirul Umi Cahyaning Ayub INA
87 Patrycja Chudziak POL
87 Volha Rak BLR
87 Hannah Sealy-Fisher RSA
87 Aries Susanti Rahayu INA
91 Margarita Agambayeva KAZ
91 Anna Brozek POL

RESULTS MEN MOSCOW 2019
1 Jernej Kruder SLO 4T4z86
2 Adam Ondra CZE 3T4z57
3 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 3T3z65
4 Anze Peharc SLO 2T3z66
5 Rei Kawamata JPN 1T3z26
6 Vadim Timonov RUS 1T3z28
7 Manuel Cornu FRA
8 Yuji Inoue JPN
9 Kokoro Fujii JPN
10 Jongwon Chon KOR
11 Aleksey Rubtsov RUS
12 Jan Hojer GER
13 Nikolai Iarilovets RUS
14 Alban Levier FRA
15 Alexander Megos GER
16 Rei Sugimoto JPN
17 Taisei Ishimatsu JPN
18 Mickael Mawem FRA
19 Tomoaki Takata JPN
20 Alex Khazanov ISR
21 YuFei Pan CHN
21 Tim Reuser NED
23 Yannick Flohé GER
23 Gregor Vezonik SLO
25 Sascha Lehmann SUI
25 Nathan Phillips GBR
27 Zach Galla USA
27 Jakob Schubert AUT
29 Kipras Baltrunas LTU
29 William Bosi GBR
29 Martin Stranik CZE
32 Gholamali Baratzadeh IRI
33 Alfons Dornauer AUT
33 Sean Mccoll CAN
35 Florian Klingler AUT
35 Simon Lorenzi BEL
35 William Ridal GBR
38 Dominik Haertl AUT
39 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA
39 Carlos Granja ECU
41 Rudolph Ruana USA
41 Sergii Topishko UKR
43 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
43 Fedir Samoilov UKR
45 Benjamin Blaser SUI
45 Thilo Jeldrik Schröter NOR
47 Lukas Franckaert BEL
47 Dmitrii Sharafutdinov RUS
49 Joe Goodacre USA
49 Sergei Luzhetskii RUS
51 Rolf Fredrik Serlachius SWE
51 Zan Sudar Lovenjak SLO
53 Jan-Luca Posch AUT
53 Fatchur Roji INA
53 Yuval Shemla ISR
53 Sergei Skorodumov RUS
57 Jeremy Bonder FRA
58 Nimrod Marcus ISR
58 Francesco Vettorata ITA
60 Keita Dohi JPN
61 Nicolas Collin BEL
61 Kevin Heiniger SUI
61 Kim Marschner GER
64 Nils Favre SUI
65 Ludovico Fossali ITA
65 Philipp Martin GER
65 James Pope GBR
65 Domen Skofic SLO
69 Cheuk-hei Ho HKG
70 Josh Levin USA
71 Marcello Bombardi ITA
71 Cesar Grosso BRA
71 Yury Novitskiy RUS
74 John Brosler USA
74 Konstantin Mitin RUS
76 Georg Parma AUT
77 Sam Avezou FRA
77 Theis Lindegren Elfenbein DEN
77 Aliaksandr Kliuzhau BLR
77 Nikita Logunov BLR
81 Nikolai Michurov RUS
82 Lasa Temi INA
83 Cheung- chi Shoji Chan HKG
83 Rishat Khaibullin KAZ
83 Danny Valencia ECU
83 Ka-chun Yau HKG
83 Evgenii Zazulin RUS
88 Chi-fung Au HKG
88 Max Ayrton GBR
88 Mark Chan Chong Kiat SGP
88 Christopher Cosser RSA
88 Tomas Duchon CZE
88 Aspar Jaelolo INA
88 Roman Kucera CZE
88 Ram Levin ISR
88 Amir Maimuratov KAZ
88 Alfian Muhammad INA
88 Dzmitry Nikanorau BLR
88 Amir Nouri IRI
88 Mohammadamin Yazdizad IRI
101 Hannes Puman SWE
102 Maksim Nikifaravets BLR
103 Dmitrii Fakiryanov RUS
103 ODE RIFALDI Ridjaya INA
103 Stepan Stranik CZE
106 Davoud Rekabi IRI
107 Singh Adarsh IND
107 Marcin Dzienski POL
107 Aliaksandr Ivanou BLR
107 Loïc Timmermans BEL