SPORT CLIMBING: Narasaki and Garnbret dominate Combineds, set as Tokyo 2020 favorites

Tomoa Narasaki (center) won the Combined title at the IFSC Worlds from Jakob Schubert (AUT; left) and Kazak Rishat Kahibullin (bronze; right) (Photo: IFSC/Eddie Fowke)

The much-anticipated IFSC World Championships Combined competitions qualified the first athletes for the sport’s debut in 2020, but also established – without any doubt – the favorites for the first Olympic medals: Tomoa Narasaki of Japan and Janja Garnbret of Slovenia.

Following the completion of the standard events – Bouldering, Lead and Speed – and a rest day, the women’s Combined final was on Tuesday and Garnbret was, as expected, on top of the podium in Hachioji (JPN):

● In Speed, Garnbret is hardly the best and finished sixth out of eight, timing 13.399. The event was won by World Champion Aleksandra Miroslaw (POL), in 7.750 ahead of Britain’s Shauna Coxsey.

● Garnbret finished second in the Bouldering event – in which she is also the World Champion – with one boulder cleared in two tries and two intermediate zones. Japan’s Akiyo Noguchi was the only to clear two problems among the finalists. Coxsey was third in this segment.

● Garnbret had to perform in Lead – in which she is World Champion – and she did, by climbing all the way to the top hold, one of only two finalists to fo so, along with Ai Mori of Japan. Noguchi had a shot at the overall win, but fell on the jump to the final hold and had to settle for the silver medal.

The top Bouldering performers did best, with Garnbret (12.00) winning, followed by Noguchi (21.00) and Britain’s Coxsey (42.00). Because the top eight qualified for the Tokyo 2020 competition and with a limit of two per country, American Brooke Raboutou (ninth) and Jessica Pilz (AUT: 10th) also punched their tickets to next year’s Olympic Games.

In the men’s Combined, Bouldering World Champion Narasaki was superb. He reached the final in Speed against Kazak Rishat Khaibullin, but fell and finished second. Narasaki was even stronger in his favorite event, Bouldering, and was the only one to complete all three problems; no one else could clear more than one.

In the Lead final, Narasaki had finished fourth in the Worlds and showed a good mastery of the course, scoring 30 and finishing second to Austria’s Jakob Schubert, who reached the top.

The quality of efforts in all three events gave Narasaki a total score of just 4.00, easily the winner ahead of Schubert (35.00) and Khaibullin (40.00).

Garnbret was fairly amazing, with three wins in four events during the Championships and she and Narasaki now wear the mantle of favorites for Sport Climbing’s first Olympic appearance. Summaries:

IFSC World Championships
Hachioji (JPN) ~ 11-21 August 2019
(Full results here)

Men

Bouldering: 1. Tomoa Narasaki (JPN), 2t4z ~ 12/20; 2. Jakob Schubert (AUT), 0t3z ~ 0/10; 3. Yannick Flohe (GER), 0t3z ~ 0/13; 4. Kokoro Fujii (JPN), 0t3z ~ 0/18; 5. Keita Dohi (JPN), ot2z ~ 0/9; 6. Adam Ondra (CZE), 0t0z ~ 0/0.

Lead: 1. Ondra (CZE), 34+; 2. Alexander Megos (GER), 33+; 3. Schubert (AUT), 33+; 4. Narasaki (JPN), 30; 5. Sean McColl (CAN), 30; 6. Stefano Ghisolfi (ITA), 29+; 7. Kai Harada (JPN), 28+; 8. Hannes Puman (SWE), 27+.

Speed ~ Final: 1. Ludovico Fossali (ITA), 6.871; 2. Jan Criz (CZE), fell. Third: Stanislav Kokorin (RUS), 5.835; 4. Danyil Boldyrev (UKR), 5.934.

Combined: 1. Tomoa Narasaki (JPN), 4.00 points; 2. Schubert (AUT), 35.00; 3. Rishat Khaibullin (KAZ), 40.00; 4. Kai Harada (JPN), 54.00; 5. Meichi Narasaki (JPN), 60,00; 6. Fujii (JPN), 72.00; 7. Mickael Mawem (FRA), 112.00; 8. Megos (GER), 448.00.

Women

Bouldering: 1. Janja Garnbret (SLO), 3t3z ~ 8/8; 2. Akiyo Noguchi (JPN), 2t2z ~ 4/2; 3. Shauna Coxsey (GBR), 2t2z ~ 6/6; 4. Ievgeniia Kazbekova (UKR), 1t2z ~ 3/4; 5. Miho Nonaka (JPN), 1t2z ~ 5.6; 6. Nanako Kura (JPN), 0t1z ~ 0/1.

Lead: 1. Garnbret (SLO), 43+; 2. Mia Krampl (AUT), 39+; 3. Ai Mori (JPN), 38+; 4. Chae-Hyun Seo (KOR), 38+; 5. Akiyo Noguchi (JPN0, 38+; 6. Jessica Pilz (AUT), 35+; 7. Vita Lukan (SLO), 30+; 8. Julia Chanourdie (FRA), 30+.

Speed ~ Final: 1. Aleksandra Miroslaw (POL), 7.129; 2. Di Niu (CHN), 8.363. Third: 3. Anouck Jaubert (FRA), 7.534; 4. YiLing Song (CHN), 9.768.

Combined: 1. Garnbret (SLO), 12.00 points; 2. Noguchi (JPN), 21.00; 3. Coxsey (GBR), 42.00; 4. Miroslaw (POL), 64.00; 5. Nonaka (JPN), 80.00; 6. Mori (JPN), 80.00; 7. Futaba Ito (JPN), 120.00; 8. Petra Klingler (SUI), 126.00.