World Climbing Championship 2018 Recap
After 10 days of competitions among six of the top-scoring men and women athletes, the Combined finals came to an end with the athletes facing off in a Bouldering, Lead, and Speed Climbing showdown for the Combined world title. The six women finalist went head-to-head in Speed Climbing with a bracket-style elimination, Miho Nonaka of Japan beat Jessica Pilz of Austria in the first round, but Pilz’s quick time helped her advance to the semi-finals as the “lucky loser”. Sol Sa of Korea raced past Pilz in the final round with the fastest time of 9.273 seconds and came out on top of the women’s Speeding Climbing, as well as 2nd place in Bouldering. Janja Garnbret placed 5th placed in Speed, but reached 1st place in both Bouldering and Lead, claiming the women’s Combined world title.
For the men’s Speed Climbing, Jakob Schubert of Austria advanced over Tomoa Narasaki of Japan to the final round, overcame “lucky loser” Kai Harada of Japan at the last move in the semi-finals, and then came in second place to Jan Hojer of Germay, with a quicker time, in the final round. Jan Hojer eliminated Adam Ondra of Czech Republic in the first round and Kokoro Fujii of Japan in the second round with the fastest time of the day (7.146 seconds). Schubert took home the men’s Combined world title after placing 1st in Bouldering and 2nd in the Lead.
You can find out more about the competition and other disciplines by visiting the IFSC YouTube channel for entire event replay and highlight videos.