Paris Olympian Wins First Boulder World Cup Gold
The women's final at the Boulder World Cup in Bern featured four fun problems and lots of tops
Dimitris Tosidis/IFSC
The penultimate women’s Boulder World Cup of the 2025 season was held yesterday in Bern, Switzerland. Great Britain’s Erin McNeice came away with gold after being the only competitor to top all four problems in the finals. Team USA’s Annie Sanders and Team Japan’s Miho Nonaka came in second and third respectively, with just a single attempt (0.1 points) separating the two climbers. They each achieved three tops and one zone.
McNeice’s gold medal is her first in Boulder World Cup competition. She’s been having an outstanding year on the circuit, winning golds at the Lead World Cups in Wujiang and Bali. At the Boulder World Cup in Prague last week, she placed fourth. Last year she earned two bronzes (once in Lead and once in Boulder) as well as a fifth-place finish at the Paris Olympics.
“I feel so happy, elated, and quite shocked!” said McNeice after the comp. “I want to do all the European World Cups and there are quite a lot of them. I decided to skip the American competitions so that I could have a chance to train between the Asian and the European tours. It feels pretty good to win gold in both disciplines, it’s been a massive long-term goals for me and it’s good to tick it off.”
Sanders adds her new silver medal to her growing collection from this season. She won back-to-back medals on the China leg of the circuit, picking up gold at the Boulder World Cup in Keqiao and bronze at the Lead World Cup in Wujiang. She also won bronze at the Salt Lake City Boulder comp. Nonaka adds the new bronze to her collection of 25 previous World Cups medals.
Final Results
- Erin McNeice (GBR) 99.5
- Annie Sanders (USA) 84.4
- Miho Nonaka (JPN) 84.3
- Zelia Avezou (FRA) 74.3
- Mao Nakamura (JPN) 69.7
- Anon Matsufuji (JPN) 69.6
- Oceania Mackenzie (AUS) 69.6
- Melody Sekikawa (JPN) 54.0
