Tight Semis Prepares Uncertain Finals in Salt Lake

For the first time in recent history, Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret came close to not making Finals in first position. Still, the World Champion retained her streak and took three tops and four zones to qualify at the top of her leaderboard.

Although the women’s field featured fewer tops than in last weekend’s round, the semi-finals featured a strong performance from each of the top six finalists. Of those going to Finals, France’s Oriane Bertone made it first to the mats. While she may have felt the pressure of only achieving two tops, she rocketed to first position and remained there for a portion of the competition. The young athlete enters Finals in third position.

Serbia’s Stasa Gejo had an exceptional round taking to the mats several places after Bertone. With two tops and three zones, she would take fifth position into Semis beating out sixth-place-qualified Natalia Grossman.

Grossman and her teammate Brooke Raboutou made it into their second finals together taking sixth and fourth positions respectively. While Raboutou had a difficult first two boulders, she tied the round together with a strong performance on W3 and W4. Raboutou became the only climber to top a technical W3.

Nonaka quickly took the lead upon entering the field. Nonaka looks extremely strong going into finals despite the fact that she must feel some fatigue from last week’s performance. Garnbret looked notably surprised by the difficulty of the boulders. The route setters set a perfect Semi-Finals for the Women.

Early in the Men’s field, Canadian Sean McColl ran into resistance from another team. They called a technical on a boulder that he had sent, or almost sent, depending on your perspective. Although he came back out and resent the boulder, he would have found himself extremely frustrated by this turn of events. Such a technical call could derail any competitor’s head space. Canadians found this frustrating.

Overall, the Men’s field featured a great many ascents. with the notable absence of Adam Ondra. Missing from the top six finalists, France’s Mejdi Schalck took ninth. Although he has been doing well in these last competitions, it would appear he could not maintain throughout the round. Still, these weekends have shown him to be an exceptional competitor.

Of the six going to Finals, Great Britain’s Maximillian Milne stands out as the greatest surprise. He qualified in sixth position after an extremely consistent performance. France’s Manuel Cronu did not qualify for Finals but received the same number of tops and zones, three and four respectively, similar to the third through the sixth placed qualified athlete. He missed finals by two attempts to zone.

Americans Zach Galla and Sean Bailey surprised audiences taking third and second respectively. The American crowd in Salt Lake will look forward to seeing a total of four Americans in Finals.

Making up the remaining positions, Japan’s Kokoro Fujii, Yoshiyuki Ogata, and Tomoa Narasaki took fifth, fourth and first positions respectively. Kokoro Fujii’s buzzer-beater ascent on M4 offer one of Semi-Final’s highlights.

Narasaki brought exquisite form and will be the man to beat in Finals. Finals begins at 7:00 EST.

Men Advancing to Finals

1 : Tomoa Narasaki (JPN)

2 : Sean Bailey (USA)

3 : Zach Galla (USA)

4: Yoshiyuki Ogata (JPN)

5 : Kokoro Fujii (JPN)

6 : Maximillian Milne (GBR)

Women Advancing to Finals

1 : Janja Garnbret (SLO)

2 : Miho Nonaka (JPN)

3 : Oriane Bertone (FRA)

4 : Brooke Raboutou (USA)

5 : Stasa Gejo (SBR)

6: Natalia Grossman (USA)

Featured Image by Daniel Gajda