Janja Garnbret made it a golden double in Seoul as she won the Boulder world title at the IFSC Climbing World Championships a day after she also won the Lead competition.
The Slovenian climber won her fourth Boulder gold, and the tenth World Championship title of her career beating France’s Oriane Bertone in silver and USA’s Melina Costanza in bronze.
Coming into the final in third from the semi-finals, and with five attempts to top the first final boulder, Garnbret came under immense pressure in Seoul from a near faultless Bertone.
The French climber flashed boulder one, two and three, and then made the zone on boulder four in one attempt. However, Bertone came agonisingly close to a perfect score just falling on the very last move. Despite composing herself on the mats, Bertone once again missed the top which left her on 85pts and left the door open for Garnbret.
With more attempts, Garnbret had to top the final boulder to win, and as she always seems to do, she delivered – and with secured yet another gold medal with a score of 99.5pts.
Talking about her win Garnbret said: “It’s incredible, honestly. I don’t know if I wished that this would happen, but today I just climbed with my heart. I felt kind of empty from yesterday’s Lead semi and final, after winning the adrenaline goes a little down but I really just focused on myself and my climbing and luckily it worked out today.”
Whether if Garnbret knew she had to top to win she said: “You kind of know what is going on, but not really. I knew already at the observation that the boulders were not that hard, maybe the last one was the hardest, but I knew there wasn’t a lot of room for mistakes. I knew what I had to do on the last boulder as I knew Oriane didn’t top. It definitely looked like my style and I knew I would top it, but it adds a bit of pressure.”
Garnbret and Bertone looked out of reach in the final and rightly claimed their medals, and Costanza joined them on the podium after a special first World Championships appearance.
Costanza is well known in the home country for her climbing, but on the world stage she is rarely seen. It was her first World Championships and her first world Boulder competition since 2022, and she returns home with a medal.
The American had a score of 59.8pts for her bronze including a flash on boulder three.
There was heartbreak again for Great Britain’s Erin McNeice as she finished fourth for the second day in a row. She scored 54.8pts.
Slovenia’s Jennifer Buckley was fifth with 44.5pts, Germany’s Anna Maria Apel was sixth with 44.0pts, USA’s Annie Sanders was sixth with 39.3pts and Israel’s Ayala Kerem was eighth with 29.6pts.
Full women’s Boulder results can be found here
The IFSC Climbing and Para Climbing World Championships come to a close tomorrow with the final day featuring the men’s semi-final and final.
News and updates about the event will be available on the IFSC website and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Bilibili, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.