Stefano Ghisolfi and Janja Garnbret win Lead World Cup in Xiamen

China evidently brings out the best in Stefano Ghisolfi who, after winning his first-ever Lead World Cup stage in Wujiang in 2014, has now celebrated his second victory at Xiamen. Despite the sultry heat and oppressive humidity the Italian dominated this sixth round right from the qualifiers, and was the only athlete to top out in the Semifinals. In the Final he then climbed two holds higher than surprising Dmitrii Fakiryanov - winner of the recent first World University Championship in Shanghai - and Austria’s Jakob Schubert. One season after the next Ghisolfi has gradually coalesced into one of the world’s premier sport climbers and now, with the last competition in Kranj in late November, the pressure is on for the podium: Domen Skofic is currently in provisional first with 417 points, ahead of Jakob Schubert (377), France’s Romain Desgranges (341) and then, just three points behind, Ghisolfi. As usual Kranj will be crucial in deciding who wins overall gold, silver and bronze.

In the women's competition it was Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret who called the shorts once again: the Lead World Champion won her fourth World Cup this season beating her closest rival Anak Verhoeven to silver. The Belgian had placed joint-equal in the Semis, but fell two holds lower than Garnbret in the Final. Third place went to South Korea’s Jain Kim who fell off the same hold as Verhoeven but slipped into third place due to countback.

Xiamen also hosted the last leg of the 2016 Speed ​​World Cup, won by the Poland’s Klaudia Buczek and Russia’s Stanislav Kokorin. In the women's competition Buczek beat Russia’s Iuliia Kaplina, with the other Soviet athlete Anna Tsyganova finished third. In the men’s competition Kokorin for the better of France’s Bassa Mawem, while, China’s Qixin Zhong was forced to settle for bronze. These results also sealed the season, meaning that overall victory in the Speed World Cup 2016 went to Iuliia Kaplina and Marcin Dzienski.

MALE
1 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 39
2 Dmitrii Fakiryanov RUS 37+
3 Jakob Schubert AUT 37+
4 Gautier Supper FRA 33+
5 Romain Desgranges FRA 32+
6 Thomas Joannes FRA 32
7 Masahiro Higuchi JPN 25+
8 Hanwool Kim KOR 11+
9 Domen Skofic SLO
10 Sean Mccoll CAN
11 Loïc Timmermans BEL
12 Taito Nakagami JPN
13 Haibin Qu CHN
14 Alberto Gotta ITA
15 Yiftach Kushnir ISR
16 Marcello Bombardi ITA
17 Max Rudigier AUT
18 Kai Harada JPN
19 Naoki Shimatani JPN
20 Keiichiro Korenaga JPN
21 Pan Yufei CHN
22 Elan Jonasmcrae CAN
23 Blazquez Cano Javier ESP
24 Kokoro Fujii JPN
25 Hiroto Shimizu JPN
26 Puigblanque Julian Ramón ESP
27 Kaya Otaka JPN
28 Zida Ma CHN
29 Or Wechsler ISR
30 Kai Lightner USA
31 Chi-Fung Au HKG
32 Martínez Pastor Sergio ESP
33 Huang Xin CHN
34 Zhaxi Bianba CHN
35 Hei-Yeung Lam HKG
36 Nathan Price USA
37 Chilie Danzeng CHN
37 Tsun-Ting Ip HKG
39 Zaheer Ahmad PAK

FEMALE
1 Janja Garnbret SLO 42+
2 Anak Verhoeven BEL 40+
3 Jain Kim KOR 40+
4 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 36+
5 Mina Markovic SLO 35+
6 Julia Chanourdie FRA 33+
7 Salomé Romain FRA 29+
8 Jessica Pilz AUT 21+
9 Magdalena Röck AUT
10 Mathilde Becerra FRA
11 Yuka Kobayashi JPN
12 Lamu Renqing CHN
13 Hélène Janicot FRA
14 Risa Ota JPN
15 Katharina Posch AUT
16 Yuki Hiroshige JPN
17 Netta Fredman ISR
18 Natsuko Shimizu JPN
19 Claudia Ghisolfi ITA
20 Kokoro Takata JPN
21 Aya Kikuzawa JPN
22 Anna Tsyganova RUS
23 Di Niu CHN
24 Yuzhen Baima CHN
25 Zhuoma Pubu CHN
26 Renzeng Zhuoma CHN