Sport Climbing World Championships 2023 begin in Bern today

The 18th edition of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Championships will commence in Bern, Switzerland, today. Spread across 12 days – from Tuesday 1 to Saturday 12 – the event will award world titles in Boulder, Lead, Speed, and Paraclimbing, also distributing the first batch of 10 Olympic quota places for Paris 2024, ie Climbing’s second participation at the Olympic Games.

WOMEN’S BOULDER AND LEAD
192 women are set to compete in Bern, 120 in Boulder and 113 in Lead, with the 20 best performers who have competed in the two disciplines advancing to the Boulder & Lead competition to fight for a coveted Paris 2024 ticket.

An athlete that comes to mind straight away when you talk medals, World Championships and Olympics is Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret. The first, and only, women’s Olympic Climbing gold medallist is once again in great form in 2023, a year in which she notched up her 40th World Cup gold medal. Those golds have also come in both Boulder and Lead competitions which undeniably makes Garnbret a hot favourite for a World Championships medal.

Garnbret isn’t the only Slovenian with medals in their locker. Vita Lukan won her first World Cup gold in the last World Cup before the World Championships in Lead in Briançon, France, whereas teammate Mia Krampl seems to excel when the Boulder and Lead disciplines are combined. She has a silver medal the 2021 World Championships in the Combined format and another silver from the 2022 European Championships Boulder & Lead.

USA’s Natalia Grossman won a Boulder gold and a Lead silver at the last World Championships. Add to that consistently high place finishes at World Cup’s in both disciplines since then. In 2023 the American has once again showed her form by taking the 2023 Boulder World Cup series title.

Talking about her year so far Grossman said: "My 2023 season started off pretty rocky as I was dealing with some gastrointestinal issues. However, as my symptoms became more manageable my performances improved and I’m happy with how the season turned around for the better. I came home after the Villars World Cup in order to have three weeks to train at home. It has felt so good to be back in the States and at the US Training Centre. I’ve had lots of fun and hard sessions and I feel as though I’ve done everything possible in training."

Longtime friend, teammate and training partner of Grossman, Brooke Raboutou, has been no stranger to a World Cup podium in her career, but it wasn’t until the first event of 2023 that she claimed her first ever World Cup gold medal from the Boulder competition. Add onto that a Lead bronze and you can see Raboutou will once again be a name to look out for.

Another pair of teammates to keep an eye on would be South Korea’s Seo Chaehyun and Kim Jain. Proving her longevity in the sport, Kim came back after a hiatus to make multiple finals and claim a 30th World Cup gold medal of her career in 2023. Alongside her in finals, Seo has had a mixed season to date.

Seo said: "I had quite a hard time at the beginning of the Boulder season, but at the end I felt pretty strong.In Lead, well I made some mistakes during the whole process, but I still have a lot of confidence for Lead. I have been focusing more on Boulder than Lead, mainly because I feel I have lots of weaknesses in that discipline. But now I’m finding a good balance for both. I always feel strong on the Lead wall, so I have more confidence there than with Boulder."

Seo has shown good form throughout her career in Lead and will be defending the gold medal she won in the Lead competition at the last World Championships. In 2023, she now has a World Cup Boulder medal to compliment her Lead achievements after taking silver in the discipline from Brixen, Italy.

With ‘some mistakes’ and being a current World Championships gold medallist, does this add pressure for Seo: "It does a little, but I just want to enjoy the process, and like all climbers I always want to top the routes. It’s important to get out of that pressure though. It will be another challenge for me, and that gets me psyched."

In contrast to the South Korean, Grossman said: "The last World Championships feels like forever ago, so to me it doesn’t add more pressure." When it comes to actually competing in the World Championships, the defending champions can agree.

Seo said: "I always feel honoured to be part of the sport. It feels great and it makes me proud that I can compete in competitions like the World Championships."

Grossman echoed the sentiment saying: "I’m extremely excited and grateful to be able to compete at the upcoming World Championships. My goals are to stay present, to enjoy the moment, and to be able give my best performance."

Other World Championships medallists from 2021 include the two Italian climbers Laura Rogora and Camilla Moroni, Iran’s Elnaz Rekabi and Serbia’s Stasa Gejo who also claimed a World Cup medal this season.

Austria’s Jessica Pilz was the Combined winner in 2021 and in 2023 has had a good Lead season with a silver from the World Cup in Villars and bronze in Innsbruck.

There are a few strong teams in attendance for Bern and unsurprisingly Japan is one. More often or not you will see a Japanese athlete at the top end of the leaderboards, and some of those names include Miho Nonaka who returned to the top step of a World Cup podium for the first time in five years with a win in Seoul at the start of the season.

Other Japanese climbers gracing the 2023 World Cup podium were Ai Mori, Kume Nonoha and Matsufuji Anon.

With the next Olympic Games in Paris, there is interest in how the French athletes have been faring in the build-up. And not too bad is the answer. Oriane Bertone won the first World Cup gold of her career in 2023 and teammates Manon Hily and Hélène Janicot have also stepped onto the podium.

Focusing on an Olympic return, Australia’s Oceania Mackenzie has been a mainstay in IFSC World Cup competitions in 2023 after a restricted international competition schedule in 2022 due to her country’s Covid-19 rules, and a national record fifth place finish in Boulder at World Cup Brixen is sure to give her confidence.

Another climber with increasing confidence is Great Britain’s Molly Thompson-Smith who has had to fight back from an ankle injury in the offseason. After consecutive ninth-place finishes, and with it just missing out on finals, Thompson-Smith made the leap into the Briançon Lead finals to take an upward trajectory into Bern.

Hannah Meul started the year with a Boulder World Cup silver but hasn’t featured much in the Lead competitions. The German climber narrowly missed out on a European Championships Boulder & Lead medal finishing in fourth but showing her potential across both disciplines.

On a happy and sad note, Canada’s Alannah Yip and Switzerland’s Petra Klinger will both feature, however, they have both indicated this World Championships could well be their last, so going out on a high will be in their minds.

Climbing begins for the women at IFSC World Championships Bern 2023 with Lead qualification at 11:00 (UTC+2:00) on 2 August and Boulder qualification at 16:00 on 3 August.

MEN’S BOULDER AND LEAD
Among the total of 10 Olympic qualification spots available at Bern 2023, at the end of the event three men from 139 Boulder and 141 Lead athletes will get the golden tickets in the Boulder & Lead format for Paris 2024.

As the 2023 season began thoughts of Paris 2024 were already creeping into people’s minds, and attention was turning to the French climbers to see if they would start to show the potential of pleasing a home crowd come July next year.

Mejdi Schalck quickly made sure he was the name on everyone’s lips. The exciting young climber took gold in the Boulder World Cup opener in Hachioji, Japan, and followed it up with another in Seoul, South Korea just a week later.

Schalck wasn’t the only French climber to visit the podium in 2023 with Paul Jenft joining his teammate in the Hachioji medal spots and Sam Avezou showing his flexibility between disciplines with a bronze in Boulder in Innsbruck, Austria and a silver in Lead in front of a home crowd in Chamonix.

Add in the bronze medallist in Boulder from the last World Championships in 2021, Manuel Cornu, and the French team will be ones to watch in Bern.

When you look at teams, in the men’s disciplines Japan definitely caught the eye this year, none more so than when seven out of the eight Lead finalists at the Briançon World Cup were from the last Olympic host nation.

Some of the names to look out for include Fujii Kokoro who took Boulder silver at the last World Championships, Ogata Yoshiyuki and Narasaki Meichi who both podiumed during the 2023 World Cup Boulder season and Narasaki Tomoa – Meichi’s brother, 2021 World Championships silver medallist and winner of the Boulder World Cup in Salt Lake City, USA, earlier in the year.

Tomoa said: "I have been training with the focus on the World Championships in Bern. I have confidence and high expectations of myself. My goal for Bern is to get the ticket for Paris 2024. It might be that I put too much pressure on myself, but I believe in myself that I can produce my best performance."

The Japanese climber that really caught the eye though was the young Anraku Sorato. In his first senior season Anraku built his confidence through the World Cup Boulder series culminating in a gold in Innsbruck, and with it the 2023 Boulder World Cup series title.

Anraku isn’t just a Boulder specialist though. As one of the seven Briançon finalists, he also took a Lead gold in what so far has been a magical year. If there is a climber on a high going into a World Championships, its Anraku.

Also brimming with confidence is Great Britain’s Toby Roberts. This time last year Anraku and Roberts were fighting it out for Youth Worlds medals. Now, 12 months on, both have a World Cup gold in both Boulder and Lead in their pockets and look set to continue their battle in Bern on the senior stage. Roberts will also have compatriot Hamish McArthur who took a Lead bronze medal in 2021 to take national inspiration from when it comes to stepping up onto Worlds podium.

With youth seemingly coming to the fore in Boulder, helped by Belgium’s Hannes Van Duysen winning his country’s first ever men’s World Cup medal in Hachioji and South Korea’s Lee Dohyun also taking his first ever World Cup gold in Prague, Czech Republic, there were still climbers showing experience matters.

Lee’s teammate and mentor Jongwon Chon took a Boulder World Cup medal in his homeland, as did the Czech Republic’s Adam Ondra when he returned to World Cup action in Prague.

Ondra also stepped up onto the Lead podium in Villars, Switzerland, and was joined by Germany’s Alexander Megos and Austria’s Jakob Schubert. It was both Megos and Schubert’s second Lead World Cup in consecutive competitions, although for the Austrian his gold in Villars made him the men’s all time World Cup record holder.

For Megos, he will have strong company from the German team with the 2021 Combined World Championships winner Yannick Flohé and the silver medallist in that competition, Philipp Martin, joining him in Bern.

In the first Lead World Cup of 2023 in Innsbruck, it was Switzerland’s Sascha Lehmann who took the top spot, and he will be hoping a repeat in his homeland will be on the cards.

Other names to look out for will be the North American contingent that includes the World Cup appearance record holder, Canadian Sean McColl, and USA national appearance holder Sean Bailey. Although not quite hitting the standards they set in 2022, Bailey’s teammates Jesse Grupper and Colin Duffy will hope Bern can change their medal fortunes around.

Slovenia’s Luka Potocar will also be hoping Bern brings good fortune so he can add to the World Championships Lead silver he took in 2021, and with Olympic tickets up for grabs, who can forget the current Olympic champion, Spain’s Alberto Ginés López.

As part of the Olympic programme, the IFSC is running the Olympic Universality Programme which offers climbers from developing nation’s a chance to compete at the showpiece event, and one of the athletes in that programme, and who will be in Bern, is North Macedonia’s Matej Markov.

Markov looks back on a big year for him saying: "So far 2023 has been really good for me, mainly on a personal level because of the traveling I did. When it comes to my training that has definitely gotten more intense in order to improve."

When it comes to Bern, Markov said: "For the upcoming World Championships, I just feel happy to be participating. My goal is simple, to try my best and enjoy the climbing. Of course, it being my first World Championships will put more pressure on me, but it just means I want to train more and participate in other World Championships in the future."

Climbing begins for the men at IFSC World Championships Bern 2023 with Boulder qualification at 09:00 (UTC+2:00) on 1 August and Lead qualification at 09:00 on 3 August.

MEN’S AND WOMEN’S SPEED
Speed Climbing in 2023 has gone to another level ahead of the IFSC World Championships in Bern with records broken and qualification times to finals tumbling. Of the 428 climbers in the Swiss capital from 1 to 12 August, 143 will take to the Speed wall – 83 men and 60 women. The top two men and top two women will also get a ticket to Paris 2024 next year. Among the men’s starting line-up it’s hard to look past an Indonesian team bursting with talent, and a fair bit of speed too.

The headline grabber from the start of the year has been Veddriq Leonardo. The first Speed climber to go under the magic five seconds in competition, not once, not twice, but three times in the kick off Speed World Cup of the season in Seoul, South Korea. A gold medal accompanied the new world record of 4.90.

That seemed to light a fire within the team with former world record holder Kiromal Katibin taking two World Cup bronze medals and Rahmad Adi Mulyono taking his first ever World Cup gold medal in the last Speed event before the World Championships in Chamonix, France.

Whilst Leonardo has the world record, and with it the Asian record, in the men’s category every continental record has fallen in 2023.

USA’s Sam Watson broke the Pan American record in Seoul with 5.02. Italy’s Matteo Zurloni broke the European record in Chamonix with 5.14. New Zealand’s Julian David broke the Oceania record also in Chamonix with 5.80. And last but not least, South Africa’s Joshua Bruyns broke the African record with 5.99, also in Chamonix.

With times in qualification coming down, it means that Bern is going to be quick straight from the start. Especially when you add in the likes of Omasa Ryo of Japan, who won the country’s first ever Speed World Cup medal in 2023, the Ukrainian defending world champion Danyil Boldyrev and another strong team in China who boast a few speedsters of their own in Wu Peng, Long Jianguo and Wang Xinshang – just to name a few.

One man trying to get in the mix of such speed talent is Spain’s Erik Noya Cardona who has a silver medal from the 2021 World Championships that he aims to upgrade.

Talking about his year so far Noya Cardona said: "In sports terms it has been a rollercoaster year with lots of ups and downs. It’s been really busy, but at the same time awesome because I have learned a lot – from competitions, training, travelling, and most importantly from myself by trying to look inside searching for balance and happiness. Because of the main events of the season, at some point, I felt a lot of pressure but now I have learned to handle it and feel calmer and more confident, which is great. In general, this year I climbed a lot, trained a lot, went to many nice events and met new and old friends. I really can’t complain. My personal life is stable and I’m healthy, so what else can I ask for?"

Although not adding a medal to his 2022 World Cup and Continental silverware, Noya Cardona has been bringing his times down and notched up a personal best in Chamonix with a 5.28, so what goals does the Spanish speedster have for the World Championships: "Having another opportunity to participate in such a big event feels great and makes me proud of myself. My goal is simply - do my best possible performance, do a new personal best, and qualify to Paris 2024."

When it comes to women’s Speed it’s the Polish team that immediately springs to mind, and none more so than the world record holder Aleksandra Miroslaw. Coming out of the 2023 blocks in some style lowering her own record four times at the same event in Seoul. The current time is 6.25.

Miroslaw got gold in that event and followed it up with another two for a perfect three from three World Cups. Despite slipping to silver at the European Games in her home country, Miroslaw will be at the top of everyone’s hit list.

Debriefing her 2023 Miroslaw said: "The first half of the season has been very good for me. I'm very grateful for the last few months. The successes of recent years attracted sponsors who enabled me to fully focus on my work. I expanded my team and now everything is really moving forward - each team member knows what they have to do. Training has been good, but also very tough and challenging. It’s probably been the best training period of my career. With my coach we put the bar even higher than before Tokyo 2020. We worked very hard to bring the best out of me for upcoming competition."

When it comes to the World Championships specifically, Miroslaw said: "A lot has changed since the last event. The level of competition has increased, and new competitors have entered the scene. My medal from the previous Championships is already in the past. I try not to focus so much about the outcome, but more about giving my best."

Taking the European Games title was teammate Natalia Kalucka who also is the defending world champion. Kalucka also backed up her European Games win with her first ever World Cup gold in Villars, Switzerland, so is in a little bit of a hot streak coming into Bern.

Twin sister Aleksandra Kalucka also has two medals to her name from the World Cup and Continental level in 2023 to add to the Polish firepower in search of podiums.

If the Indonesian men are fast and plenty, then the women are catching up. In the final World Cup before the Worlds in Chamonix, Rajiah Sallsabillah claimed her first ever World Cup gold and was joined on the podium by teammate Nurul Iqamah who took bronze. The two are joined by Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi who is a constant performer on the world stage.

Splitting the two Indonesians in silver on the Chamonix podium was France’s Victoire Andrier who will be hoping the prospect of an Olympic Games in her homeland can inspire her to another top two finish and a Paris 2024 ticket to accompany a World Championships medal.

Although not every women’s continental record was broken in 2023, there were still a few. Miroslaw added the European record by taking the world, USA’s Emma Hunt broke the Pan American record with 6.68 and Deng Lijuan the Asian record with 6.47.

With two Youth Worlds titles to her name from 2021 and 2022, Italy’s Beatrice Colli has stepped into the senior ranks and hit a personal best time at the World Cup in Villars, Switzerland, and took her first senior international medal with a bronze at the European Games in 2023 and will hope the upward trajectory continues in Bern.

Speed Climbing takes place at the IFSC World Championships Bern 2023 on 10 August with qualification at 09:00 (UTC+2:00) and Finals at 20:00