Chamonix 2018 Highlights, Winners and Top Canadians

The 2018 Chamonix Lead and Speed World Cup this week in France with Stefano Ghisolfi of Italy and Jessica Pilz of Austria winning Lead.

No Canadians made it to Lead Semis in Chamonix with Lucas Uchida finishing in 61 (74 in speed), Jason Holowach in 96 (69 in speed) and Sean Faulkner in 108 for men and Alannah Yip in 55 (45 in Speed), Becca Frangos in 69 (58 in Speed) and Lia Wieckowski in 81 for women.

Ghisolfi and Pilz were the only ones to send the route in finals, it was Pilz’s first IFSC World Cup victory. Speed climbers Danyil Boldyrev of Ukraine and Aleksandra Rudzinska of Poland took gold at the fifth Speed comp of the season.

Lead Finals Male/Female
1. Stefano Ghisolfi / Jessica Pilz
2. Jakob Schubert / Janja Garnbret
3. Alex Megos / Jain Kim

Watch highlights to the comp here:

IFSC Post-Comp Report

The 5th IFSC Speed World Cup finals brought many surprises, and in the end two long-time Speed stars donned gold medals again in the French commune of Chamonix. 2017 rivals and Speed world record holders Anouck Jaubert and Iuliia Kaplina were both eliminated in the first round of finals on Thursday.

Rudzinska and Anna Tsyganova (RUS) advanced to the big final after edging ever-steady Mariia Krasavina (RUS) and home competitor Aurelie Sarisson in close semi-final races. Six years after topping the podium in Chamonix, Rudzinska returned to the spotlight, the sole athlete to record no times above 8 seconds on the Speed wall. In the small final, Krasavina defended her bronze medal.

The surprises continued in the men’s final, with Speed world record holder Reza Alipourshenazandifar (IRI) and Villars victor Aleksandr Shikov (RUS) ending their competition in the first round. Bassa Mawem (FRA) recorded the fastest time in Chamonix (5.63s) and no times above 6 seconds, but the crowd favourite slipped high up on the 15-metre Speed wall in the semi-final race against Boldyrev.

In an exciting final matchup, Boldyrev slapped the finishing pad fractions of a second before season leader Dmitrii Timofeev for his second gold medal in four years in Chamonix. In the small final, Mawem steadily climbed to a bronze medal after an early fall from Speed legend Qixin Zhong (CHN).

Congratulations Lead medalists in Chamonix! 1st #IFSCwc victory for @jessy_pilz! Recap, results and replays at our bio link ? @thecircuitclimbing

A post shared by IFSC (@ifsclimbing) on Jul 13, 2018 at 5:19pm PDT

Lead finals took place the following evening in front of another packed crowd in Chamonix. 8 women and 8 men attempted powerful last routes with dynamic moves at the beginning, a few good rests throughout the steepest section and technical sequences on the concluding panel of the tall Lead wall.

Villars victor Janja Garnbret (SLO) surpassed the previous high point and slapped one hand on the final hold for her second podium in 2018 in as many events, but only one woman turned an attempt into a Top. Pilz, who earlier set the high point in semi-finals, creeped across the final holds to match on the top jug and clip the chains with 7 seconds remining, her first IFSC World Cup victory and second podium in a row. Jain Kim (KOR) also made full use of her 6 minutes to come within two moves from the top and remain on the podium as well.

The men’s final came down to the three semi-final leaders. Ghisolfi surpassed all previous marks and concluded his week in Chamonix with another crowd-pleasing top on Friday, his fourth IFSC World Cup win.

Alexander Megos (GER) peeled off at the same powerful move on the headwall which stumped Domen Skofic (SLO) for bronze on countback. Villars winner Jakob Schubert ended the event by falling just shy of the top hold to stand on his second podium in 2018.

Shuta Tanaka became the first Youth Olympic Games Buenos Aires 2018 qualified athlete to compete in an IFSC Lead World Cup final this season in Chamonix, reaching the headwall in his first final to place 6th.

French teammates Nolwenn Arc and youth world champion Sam Avezou performed in front of their home crowd in semi-finals, joined by Keita Dohi and Tanaka of Japan and Vita Lukan (SLO). In Speed, YiLing Song of China returned to the finals, recording her personal best time of the season (8.19s) on the way to 9th place.

Congrats @becca_frangos on the personal best! Watch the Chamonix Finals for Speed in profile link now and Lead tomorrow! “The World Cup in Chamonix kicked off today with speed. I ran a personal best time of 13.59s, almost a full second faster than my last pb at Nationals in May. Now resting up for the rest of the day and going to go crush some lead routes tomorrow with the ?? gang. ? @malek_climbing.” #speedclimbing #climbing #grippedindoors #ifsc

A post shared by Gripped Magazine Comps (@grippedmagazinecomps) on Jul 12, 2018 at 11:26am PDT