The second IFSC Lead World Cup round of 2018 took place in Chamonix, France last weekend, alongside the 5th round of the 2018 IFSC Speed World Cup. Team GB's Will Bosi qualified for his first senior World Cup final and finished 5th in a strong field of finalists. In the same weekend, he set a new British speed record of 7.66 seconds, placing him 45th in the speed event. A huge crowd of thousands of spectators filled the Place du Mont Blanc in the atmospheric setting of the Chamonix valley.
Will is the first British senior male to make a World Cup finals since Ian Vickers' 6th place in Milan in 1998 - the year Will was born! Last year, Molly Thompson-Smith placed 3rd and Shauna Coxsey placed 6th in Kranj, Slovenia, while Hannah Slaney placed 7th in the Edinburgh round. Emily Phillips made significant progress in Chamonix compared to last weekend in Villars, jumping from 49th to 38th place in the space of a week.
IFSC Climbing Worldcup (L,S) - Chamonix (FRA) 2018
Stefano Ghisolfi (ITA) won his first gold medal since Wujiang last year, ahead of Jakob Schubert (AUT) and Alex Megos (GER). Austria's Jessy Pilz won her first ever gold in an IFSC lead event, having frequently placed 2nd behind either Janja Garnbret (SLO) or Jain Kim (KOR). In the speed events, Danyil Boldyrev (UKR) took gold with a time of 6.08 seconds ahead of Dmitrii Timofeev (RUS) with 6.31 seconds, while in the women's category a shock result came as Anouck Jaubert (FRA) and Iuliia Kaplina (RUS) were both knocked out before the 1/4 final round. Aleksandra Rudzinska (POL) won with a time of 7.47 seconds ahead of Anna Tsyganova (RUS) with 7.75 seconds.
Both Stefano and Jessy were the only climbers in their categories to top the final route, with Janja coming exceedingly close and dropping the last move.
Jessy appeared on top form throughout the competition, having qualified in 1st place for the final after the semi-finals with a good margin over Janja in 2nd place. Jain climbed smoothly up to the headwall to take 3rd place.
Will Bosi lingered in the top 3 positions for a good while after a confident final climb, in which he smiled and grinned at the crowd throughout - clearly he was enjoying his first final! WIth a score of 43+, he was just three moves behind Alex Megos and Domen Skofic (SLO). Before the final, Will told UKC: 'I'm really happy. I wanted to make semis this year and I didn't think I'd make finals! I don't think I'll be a consistent finalist so I'm just going to enjoy it!'
Watch a live video of Will climbing in the finals below - complete with atmosphere/shouting!
Will now hopes to compete in the full IFSC lead circuit and the combined event at the World Championships in Innsbruck in September, with some trips to Europe's best sport crags in-between.
The next round is in Briançon, France this weekend.
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