Janja Garnbret wins a World Cup medal for the 50th time
The seventh competition of the IFSC World Cup Series 2022 took place yesterday evening in Villars, Switzerland. Slovenian high-flyer Janja Garnbret claimed her 50th World Cup medal by winning the lead discipline, while Japan’s Taisei Homma celebrated his first men’s World Cup win.
With a score of 36+, Tasei Homma climbed to the top step of the podium in the men’s final and claimed his first World Cup gold medal. It is the second podium finish for the Japanese athlete who won silver at the IFSC Lead World Cup in Xiamen 2019. He made it to the final in Innsbruck last weekend, but was far from the podium with his ninth place.
Second place went to last week’s bronze medalist, American Jesse Grupper, who earned the silver medal with 34+ points. Grupper took his second World Cup medal home with him. His teammate, Olympian Colin Duffy, finished third with 34 points, earning his third medal of the season. Duffy made history last weekend by becoming the first person ever to win both bouldering and lead in a competition.
The German Yannick Flohé just missed the podium with 33 points in fourth place. The strongest Swiss was Sascha Lehmann, who finished 19th in Villars.
Janja Garnbret continues her dominance
Slovenian Olympian Janja Garnbret secured the only top of the night, standing on an IFSC World Cup podium for the fiftieth time. She won gold a total of 34 times, 20 of them in the lead discipline.
«In Innsbruck I can feel a bit rusty because I haven’t climbed any competitions this year, with the exception of Meiringen, but after the semifinals I can feel myself in the flow. The route was a bit easier than in Innsbruck, had a few tricky passages where you had to be careful. However, the crux of the route lies in the last moves before the top,” adds Janja Garnbret.
Team USA hot on Garnbrett’s heels
Olympian Brooke Raboutou of the USA placed second with 37+ points, earning the silver medal. The American has had a stellar season so far, having won three medals in bouldering – one silver and two bronze – and two in lead – silver tonight – as well as a bronze medal in Innsbruck last weekend.
Natalia Grossman , teammate and best friend of Raboutou, secured the bronze medal at 35+. As Grossman climbed for the 15th time on such a World Cup podium , after winning eight medals in 2021 and seven medals so far this season.
The Italian Olympian Laura Rogora was fourth at 31+, followed by the French Manon Hill with 28+ in fifth place. A second try was awarded to Hily in tonight’s final after a technical incident where she was not given enough rope. The Olympian Seo Chaehyun from South Korea finished sixth at 17+ while die Japanese Nakagawa-ryu and Tanii Natsuki also finished seventh and eighth with 17+. As the trio tied for the same score in tonight’s final, they were drawn based on their score in this morning’s semifinals.
The next edition of the IFSC World Cup Series 2022 will be held in Chamonix, France, hosting events in Lead and Speed from July 8th to 10th.