On Friday evening, the first three quota places for the Paris 2024 Boulder & Lead combined event were decided in the women's finals of the IFSC World Championships in Bern, Switzerland. Reigning Olympic champion Janja Garnbret (SLO) dominated the Boulder round and secured her victory on a close-fought Lead climb, which placed her ahead of Olympian Jessy Pilz (AUT) and newly-crowned world Lead champion Ai Mori (JPN) overall.

The women's finalists comprised a mix of young and more seasoned athletes, including Lead legend Jain Kim (KOR), four Olympians - Janja Garnbret (SLO), Brooke Raboutou (USA), Miho Nonaka (JPN) and Jessica Pilz (AUT) - and the next-generation talent of Ai Mori (JPN), Oriane Bertone (FRA) and Anastasia Sanders (USA).

Boulder

A round of varied and difficult boulders challenged the women and separated the field of eight adequately, but resulted in close numerical scores, meaning that the Lead round would be hotly contested. 

The first Boulder involved a dynamic and precise double-catch move to a good hold and a pocket before a tricky finish, which defeated those who tried to jump to the last holds. Jessy Pilz (AUT) was the first to secure the top move with a technical toe-hook on her second attempt. Brooke Raboutou (USA) easily topped by placing a high foot in the pocket, while Janja Garnbret (SLO) displayed a stunning feat of strength by simply campusing the finish.

Boulder 2 was a slab traverse with an intended mid-climb rotation to face out to the crowd. Although none of the athletes succeeded with this method, the boulder received five tops via a different step-through sequence. The last move involved a difficult off-balance match on a vertical volume, which resulted in some heartbreaking falls and burned attempts. Jessy Pilz continued her topping spree by securing it on her fourth attempt, while Brooke Raboutou required just two goes and Oriane Bertone and Ai Mori, three attempts. Janja Garnbret came close to a flash, but dropped the top match. On her second go, she topped with ease. 

Boulder 3 was a burly roof climb on blobs, with a difficult compression section at the top. Pilz, Raboutou and Bertone reached the high zone (10 points, but struggled with a snatch to an undercut. Displaying an otherworldly level of strength, Garnbret stuck the move with a dynamic pop, and swiftly topped to increase her lead. 

A dramatic finale boulder involved three types of dyno: a sideways leap, a paddle dyno and a brutal run and a brutal parcour-style run and jump to two undercut volumes. Miho Nonaka (JPN) - who had failed to top any of the previous boulders - came into her own on Boulder 4. She came close to a flash ascent, dropping the committing last move. Next go, she leapt directly to the finishing undercut and stuck the move. Raboutou and Pilz came close, but couldn't make the move work. Garnbret - who had taken a bad fall in the semi-final on a similar move and was suffering mild whiplash - appeared less confident and failed to match Nonaka's feat in a surprising twist.

Oriane Bertone, the new vice Boulder world champion who had ranked 2nd in Boulder in the semi-final, had a difficult round, achieving just one Top on Boulder 2, while Ai Mori also achieved a sole slab Top. 16-year-old Annie Sanders and Jain Kim couldn't manage any Tops in a powerful round. 

At the end of the round, Garnbret remained 15.1 points ahead of Raboutou and 15.9 points ahead of Pilz — a convincing lead, but not as definitive as her semi-final round performance, where fewer tops by other women had left her considerably further ahead. The battle for second and third place in the Lead was set to be fierce.

Lead

The Lead route was endurance-focused, with no dynamic moves or distinguishing sections. This played to the advantage of veteran lead specialist Jain Kim (KOR), who scored only 14 points in the Boulder round. A high score of 92.1 on the headwall helped to bump her up the overall rankings, with 106.2/200 points. Jessy Pilz, buoyed by a strong score in Boulder, deployed her Lead specialist talent to widen the gap between her and Raboutou. She scored 88.1, bringing her total to 157.1, which was confirmed mid-final as being unbeatable by Ai Mori and sufficient to secure a top-three finish and a ticket to Paris. 

Raboutou was under pressure on her final climb, needing to reach high on the wall to surpass Pilz and put the pressure on Mori and/or Garnbret to secure a podium place. She reached 68, and faced a nervous wait as Mori and Garnbret climbed. Mori looked set to top the route, but slipped with a score of 96.1 - enough to make the top three. Garnbret - who hadn't even needed to step onto the Lead wall to qualify for the combined final - had some work to do to make the top three, needing to reach a hold that would score her above 52.9 to move ahead of Raboutou in 3rd place.

Garnbret confidently surpassed Raboutou's score, and pushed through the headwall before slipping and scoring 92.1, matching Kim's Lead score but falling short of Mori's 96.1 highpoint and finishing on 177/200. As Garnbret turned to face the crowd, her coaches and the audiences confirmed her win. Another Olympics, another chance to win gold.

Pilz finished second with 157.1/200 and Mori third with 140.6 points. Raboutou missed out on the podium and a Paris place by one hold in 137.8. Emotional scenes of the women hugging and congratulating one another followed.

Raboutou - a firm favourite for a top-3 finish - was visibly disappointed, but will be odds-on for a earning a quote place at the hotly contested PanAmerican Championships later this year.

Garnbret told the IFSC:
 
"I feel incredible and relieved at the same time. It feels so amazing today. I felt so composed today actually, I was climbing the Lead route flawlessly and I am just incredibly happy right now that I have qualified, even though I have qualified once before, you don't get tired of this feeling of qualifying for an Olympics. So, my second Olympics – here we go."
 
Pilz commented:
 
"I knew my Boulder round was kind of good but it was all still open until the end. I knew I had to give my all for the Lead route and do my best. I wasn't sure when I fell if it would be enough, but then my coaches signalled to me that it was, but I couldn't really believe it and I really wanted to wait until the end until it was safe. It still feels surreal."
 
Mori said:
 
"I was nervous but when I climb I get excited. I wanted to reach the top, but getting the Olympic ticket makes me very happy."

Boulder&lead Women

The men's final begins today at 4 p.m., where Great Britain's Toby Roberts will compete for a spot at Paris 2024. BST. Watch live on Eurosport.