Three GB Climbing athletes have qualified for tomorrow's final in the IFSC Lead World Cup in Wujiang, China. Toby Roberts, Max Milne and Erin McNeice all finished in the top eight in today's semi-final.
This is the first time that more than two British athletes have qualified for finals in the same World Cup event since the Leeds World Cup in 1989, when Simon Nadin, Jerry Moffat, Mark Leach and Ian Vincent competed in the final (and Simon won).
Toby has qualified in 1st place, Max in 4th and Erin in 7th. Molly Thompson-Smith finished 15th in the semi-final.
Max, a Boulder World Cup silver medallist, was competing in his first Lead semi-final after qualifying in 25th, and suprised himself by advancing to the final.
He wrote on Instagram: 'Making my first semi final felt good so I had to go and make my first final too. I really couldn't be happier about how today went and I'm really looking forward to climbing again tomorrow evening.'
Both Toby and Erin competed in the finals of the IFSC Boulder World Cup in Keqiao earlier this week, finishing 4th and 5th respectively. This will be Erin's first Lead World Cup final.
Toby qualified for Paris 2024 after winning the Olympic Qualifier Event in Laval, France last year (UKC News).
Three of these athletes—Erin, Max and Molly—will be competing in Boulder & Lead combined in the Olympic Qualifier Series in May alongside Hamish McArthur, Jack MacDougall and Jim Pope, for a chance to qualify for Paris 2024 and join Toby as part of Team GB.
Olympic champion Janja Garnbret topped the route and the women's leaderboard in today's semi-final.
Watch live tomorrow (Sunday) on Eurosport/Discovery+ (or YouTube in selected countries) at 12 p.m. UK time/7 p.m. local time in Wujiang.
Full report of the Lead and Speed events to follow.
Comments
Can you check the times for the Sundays final, I thought they were 19.00 local, and 12.00 midday UK time?
…and the award for best route reading goes to Max Milne!
Leeds 1989
Simon Nadin, Jerry Moffat, Mark Leach, Ian Vincent
Astounding that the TV rights have been sold to a broadcaster who isn't going to show the event live, and the live streams are geo-blocked in the UK.
Great fight, Toby!