Great Britain's Shauna Coxsey has earned her second bronze medal of the 2019 IFSC World Championships in Hachioji, Japan by placing 3rd in the Combined final following her bronze medal performance in Boulder last week. In the Combined final, Shauna surprised herself by placing 2nd in the Speed round, before going on to a provisional 1st place ahead of the Lead round after finishing 3rd in the Boulder event. A 7th place in Lead after being marked down for touching a bolt with her foot dropped her position from 4th to 7th, but ultimately Shauna's Combined ranking of 3rd stayed the same. In qualifying for the Combined final, Shauna earned a quota place for the Tokyo 2020 Games (UKC news). Shauna also set a new British Speed record of 9.41 seconds during the Speed final.
© Eddie Fowke/IFSC
Slovenia's Janja Garnbret won her third World Championship title in the space of 9 days in Hachioji after her Boulder and Lead victories, adding a second Combined World Championship gold medal to her 2018 win. Akiyo Noguchi (JPN) came within a hair's breadth of taking the overall title - as a seasoned competitor with numerous World Cup wins but no World Championship titles to her name - but failed to hold the dyno to the final holds in the Lead round as she jumped with 21 seconds ahead of Janja Garnbret's time taken to top the route. Young Japanese star Ai Mori also topped the route, but in a slower time than Janja. The Lead top 3 therefore consisted of Janja Garnbret, Ai Mori (JPN) and Akiyo Noguchi.
© Eddie Fowke/IFSC
By becoming the highest-placed Japanese athlete in the Combined final, Akiyo has provisionally secured a quota place in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, pending approval from her National Olympic Committee. It is unclear as yet whether Japanese officials will select one or two athletes from the Combined final in Hachioji, or select Akiyo alone and await results of national championships in 2020 closer to the Games. Miho Nonaka took the next highest Japanese ranking in 5th place, sharing 80 points equal with her compatriote Ai Mori, but placing just ahead having outranked Ai in two out of the three rounds (Speed and Boulder).
Full Combined report from IFSC commentator Charlie Boscoe to follow...
Watch the IFSC replays here.
IFSC Climbing World Championships Combined - Hachioji (JPN) 2019
Results
Comments
Something really is iffy with the route setting here. Two top athletes not known for this being penalised for touching a bolt.
Indeed. You would think, given what is at stake, that any extraneous bolts on or close to the line would be removed?
It wasn't an unused bolt plate for Shauna, if I'm right it was the bolt used for the 4th or 5th clip.
Yes, I figured that when I watched it. In some of the still photos deapth of field made one of of the remaining bolts look like it was close to the line. Which they weren’t.
I can see why they're doing it but this does show some of the bizarreness of the combined format and multiplied score. The speed specialist was ranked 4th in a combined climbing final despite coming last in both the other events - with a very low lead score and no zones on the boulders.
Although in fairness looking at some of the other scores speed specialists have put in some decent performances.