Olympics Sport Climbing Women’s Final

SPORT CLIMBING TOKYO 2020 

WOMENS FINALS

Day 4

Women’s Combined Speed Final

Going into the finals Miroslaw & Jaubert were the favourites, but the question was would either athletes break the World Record? Garnbret was off to a shaky start however, even after a low down slip she still managed to beat Raboutou by a tenth of second, gaining the 5th place in the speed element. Both Japnesse athletes performed well going into the 3rd place head to head with Nonaka gaining 3rd place, but the final was down to the speed climbers. Both athletes off to a great start but it was Aleksandra Miroslaw who won, setting a new World Record of 06.84 secs!

Women’s Combined Bouldering Final

After Janja’s performance in Wednesdays boulder qualification when she flashed all four blocs, she was the clear favourite for this element. Bloc 1 was seen by the setters as the hardest bloc. Only 2 of the climbers did the crux move the intended way (palm-down-rollover) with the others who got the zone doing it by standing up right foot, right hand move.

Brooke narrowly missed toping the bloc by slipping off matching the top hold!! But as expected, Janja was the only athlete to complete the bloc after 4 attempts.

Setters had intended Bloc 2 to be started facing the crowd. Jessie Pilz was first climber to try the method and makes zone, but couldn’t make any further progress. Miho Nonaka gained the zone with different beta, but couldn’t make the last move. Brooke Raboutou also made the zone facing towards the wall like Miho, however timed out on the last move. Last out was Janja Garnbret who was guaranteed to win the boulder element if she topped this bloc. Not only did she top it, she flashed it!

Bloc 3 started with a toe hook role over move, popping out to a slotted hold. The first few athletes didn’t progress passed this. Miho secured the zone on her 1st go but couldn’t make the large move between the two Cheeta Taji bubble holds. Brooke was out second to last and needed to gain the zone hold to secure second place in the bouldering. After a few attempts figuring out the first few moves, she gained the zone but just as Miho she struggled to make the next move. Last out – Janja. Could she complete all 7 Olympic boulders? First attempt she cruised the first few moves, skipping the toe hook others had used to move past the slotted hold to gain the zone. She followed in the footsteps of Miho and Brooke and dropped the crux move but she still had 3 mins left. After a rest and another drop she had 90 seconds left, time for one more attempt. She pulled on, reached the crax and dropped off! It was now all down to the final round, the lead element.

Women’s Combined Lead Final

Out first was the speed climbing World Record holder Miroslaw who was sat in second place due to her win in the speed element. Early out, she was struggling on the low section of the climb dropping off at hold 9. Next was the second fastest climber, Jaubert, who managed a few more moves to hold 13. Then was the first of the route climbers, USA’s Raboutou. Straight off she was much more composed on the route and quickly made passed the high point of hold 13 into the second section of the route which involves a dynamic sequence through some large volumes followed by some accurate moves into pockets one of which she missed, dropping at hold 20. Japans Nogughi followed the America and had the fight of her life, surpassing Brookes high point of 20 making it to hold 28 gaining more and more crowd support with each hold she made. 5th to the lead was the favourite a current leading athlete,  Janja Garnbret. Quickly she passed holds 13, hold 20 and was into the section where Nogughi had fallen. She stayed calm and progressed passed the current high point of 28 and made it to the head wall, dropping the route at hold 37! At this point the only athlete between Janja and gold was Nonaka. Nonaka started well but struggled through the same section as Brooke and dropped it one move after at hold 21. Two more athletes to go but we already had our Olympic gold medalist Jajna Garnbret. Pilz was next and silver was still in sight. Quickly she passed Nogughi and was on the head wall and the crux, reaching hold 34 moving into 2nd place on the lead, just outside of the overall medal position. Last out, and still in with a chance for bronze was Korean Seo. A stumble down low kept the crowd on their feet, but soon she was onto the head wall and moves away from a bronze medal. Moments later she missed a crimp move and levelled with Pilz, ending her chance at a medal.

So that was it, Akiyo Nogughi ended her competition career taking bronze and Miho Nonako took silver giving Japan two medals in climbing but the deserving winer was Slovenians Janja Ganbret taking the first ever Sport Climbing Olympic gold medal!

Rank	Country	Name	Speed Points	Bouldering Points	Lead Points	Total Points
Gold	SLO	GARNBRET Janja	5	1	1	5
Silver	JPN	NONAKA Miho	3	3	5	45
Bronze	JPN	NOGUCHI Akiyo	4	4	4	64
4	POL	MIROSLAW Aleksandra	1	8	8	64
5	AUT	PILZ Jessica	6	4	3	72
6	USA	RABOUTOU Brooke	7	2	6	84
7	FRA	JAUBERT Anouck	2	6	7	84
8	KOR	SEO Chaehyun	8	7	2	112

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