With her victory in bouldering, the Slovenian Janja Garnbret can be celebrated as a double European champion. Adam Ondra prevailed in the men's lead final and is now not only a new father, but also a new European champion.
The Slovenian Janja Garnbret secured her second European Championship gold medal within two days in the bouldering discipline on the Königsplatz in Munich.
After her first win at yesterday's European Championship in lead climbing, the strong Slovenian won another EM gold in bouldering. To climb to the top step of the podium, however, she first had to make up for her slow start.
While the local hero Hannah Meul and the French woman Oriane Bertone both conquered the first boulder, Garnbret could only claim one zone for himself. The second problem, however, was a completely different story. The Frenchwoman Fanny Gibert only reached the zone there. When it was Janja Garnbret's move, she quickly flashed the problem and left the mat at the top of the ranking. Another flash on boulder three and a zone on boulder four secured her the medal.
«Today was tough. I got off to a pretty bad start with the first boulder that I didn't clear. But I didn't panic. I just said to myself: look, you have three boulders in front of you, anything can happen, and I had fun."
Janja Garnbret
Nachdem Hannah Meul was able to convince in the semifinals, she started third in the preliminary round in the first women's boulder. She climbed it in the second attempt - remarkable, after all, only Oriane Bertone reached the top hold next to her.
Although the Rhinelander went even further with this comfortable starting position, it remained exciting until the end: After the penultimate tour, the podium was almost impossible to snatch from her. She only had to create the zone in the last boulder problem. She reached this with ease and ended up on place 2. Right behind the unbeatable Slovenin Garnbret.
"I enjoyed every minute on the wall and on the mats in front of this huge audience," enthused the Vice European Champion. It's super exciting to call yourself a European Championship silver medalist. "It's crazy. It sounds unbelievable and hasn't really gotten to me yet."
"It's super exciting to call yourself a silver medalist at the European Championships."
Hannah Meul
When he was just 17 years old Oriane Bertone against much more experienced competitive climbers. But that didn't seem to bother the young talent. "It's a great feeling to be able to say: Okay, I'm good enough to win bronze," said the Frenchwoman. And she feels she was good enough to win silver. "I know. not if gold would have been feasible but I want to win gold so I'll go back to training and keep that in mind."
Ranking Boulder Final Women
After bouldering bronze there is lead gold for Adam Ondra
After a more traditional semi-final, the route setters came up with a more boulder-heavy route for the round of the top eight, with jumps, compression moves and upside-down passages. Yannick Flohe came out of the call zone as third and presented well with 29+, meanwhile 1st place. His teammate Alexander Megos. behind him raised to 30+. Unfortunately, the record of the two climbing stars did not last long enough.
«With the gold medal in lead climbing, I have achieved my goal for the season. I will remember this competition for a long time. Munich was great."
Adam Ondra
The race for the gold medal was tight for the Czech Adam Ondra: He climbed to move 37+, just as far as Luca Potocar. Normally the placement in the semi-finals would decide. But even there, both had the same rating. Due to the less time that Ondra needed on the route before his fall, he moved ahead of the Slovenians in the ranking.
Adam Ondra in an interview about the European Champion title in lead climbing (audio)
As the last entered World Champion Jakob Schubert the stage. What would the Austrian be able to do on this boulder-heavy lead route? Not enough, as it turned out: he fell on move 34+, ending up in an unfortunate fourth place.
The European Championship ended particularly bitterly from a Swiss point of view Sascha Lehmann in the Lead discipline. After a sovereign qualification, which the 24-year-old finished in 5th place, the European champion from 2020 also showed a solid performance in the semi-finals. Unfortunately, half a move is missing at the end to make it into the top eight athletes. "Luck wasn't on my side today. It's frustrating that it's just not enough for the final, »says a visibly disappointed Sascha Lehmann.
Remained as the second Swiss semi-finalist Nino Gruenenfelder in his first appearance at a European Championship in position 25 without a chance. "It's very cool that I climbed into the semifinals. I was able to really enjoy the qualification and fight for the trains. Unfortunately, despite the great support from the audience in the semi-finals, I was no longer able to do this."
Ranking Lead Final Men
That might interest you
- Janja Garnbret wins lead, Nicolai Uznik becomes Boulder European Champion
- Results qualification bouldering women, lead climbing men | European Championship 2022
- Results qualification bouldering men, lead climbing women | European Championship 2022
+ + +
Credits: Cover photo: Dimitris Tosidis/IFSC, Text: IFSC, DAV, SAC