18-year-old British athlete Toby Roberts has qualified for the finals in the combined Olympic Boulder & Lead discipline at the IFSC World Championships in Bern, Switzerland in 2nd place. The top three athletes out of the eight climbers per sex after this Saturday's final will earn Paris 2024 quota places. Molly Thompson-Smith finished 12th in the women's combined semi-final.
© Lena Drapella/IFSC
Toby, who won two IFSC World Cups earlier this season (one in Boulder, one in Lead), finished 19th in the individual Boulder World Championship event and 9th in Lead following a slip on the final route. Although he was disappointed with these results, Toby's performance across both ranked him among the top twenty athletes and qualified him for the combined semi-final in 13th place.
In the Boulder & Lead semi-final, Toby placed 10th in Boulder after a confident flash of Boulder 4, a slab climb, boosted his ranking in a difficult round. In Lead, he finished =1st as one of three athletes - alongside Jakob Schubert (AUT) and Sorato Anraku (JPN) - to top the route, pausing twice mid-rest to hype up the crowd.
Toby's combined score ranked him 2nd with 164.7/200 points behind Sorato Anraku (JPN, 184.9/200) and ahead of Tokyo 2020 Olympian Colin Duffy (USA, 157.0/200).
© Lena Drapella/IFSC
Toby told the IFSC after his Lead performance:
"That felt absolutely incredible. Having had some results that haven't been going the best the competition tonight is so nice to be in front of this huge crowd and give a really good fight on a nice route. From the Lead final to tonight it's really nice to be able to get a result I know I am capable of. Being in that moment, the crowd was just electric, it was incredible. I was so in the moment. I felt really good up there so I turned around and gave them a little hype up, I was properly in the moment and I'm really happy."
Molly Thompson-Smith finished 17th in Boulder - a personal best in an IFSC Boulder event - and 9th in Lead in the individual competitions, and qualified for Boulder & Lead semis in 11th place. In the semi-final, she ranked 17th in Boulder and =6th in Lead to finish 12th overall with 78.7/200 points, just missing out on a top-eight final spot.
© Lena Drapella/IFSC
Janja Garnbret (SLO) topped the semi-final leader board after winning the Boulder round and being guaranteed a final ranking before she had even stepped onto the Lead route. Ai Mori (JPN) topped the Lead rankings, but still couldn't surpass Garnbret's combined score of 175/200, to qualify in second (136.9/200). Oriane Bertone (FRA) placed 3rd with 133.5/200.
Boulder&lead Women
| Rank | Name | Nation | Semi-final | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Janja Garnbret | SLO | 175.0 | 177.0 |
| 2 | Jessica Pilz | AUT | 98.5 | 157.1 |
| 3 | Ai Mori | JPN | 136.9 | 140.6 |
| 4 | Brooke Raboutou | USA | 122.1 | 137.8 |
| 5 | Jain Kim | KOR | 91.1 | 106.2 |
| 6 | Oriane Bertone | FRA | 133.5 | 93.8 |
| 7 | Miho Nonaka | JPN | 108.0 | 93.5 |
| 8 | Anastasia Sanders | USA | 92.5 | 69.7 |
| 9 | Natalia Grossman | USA | 88.5 | |
| 10 | Chaehyun Seo | KOR | 86.4 | |
| 11 | Manon Hily | FRA | 82.3 | |
| 12 | Molly Thompson-Smith | GBR | 78.7 | |
| 13 | Hélène Janicot | FRA | 73.6 | |
| 14 | Mia Krampl | SLO | 73.6 | |
| 15 | Zélia Avezou | FRA | 73.3 | |
| 16 | Oceana Mackenzie | AUS | 71.0 | |
| 17 | Vita Lukan | SLO | 65.5 | |
| 18 | Ayala Kerem | ISR | 53.8 | |
| 19 | YEJOO SEO | KOR | 53.0 | |
| 20 | Kyra Condie | USA | 45.5 | |
| 35 | Erin Mcneice | GBR | Qual: 73.66 |
+ finalists: Brooke Raboutou (USA), Miho Nonaka (JPN), Jessica Pilz (AUT), Anastasia Sanders (USA) and Jain Kim (KOR).
Boulder&lead Men
| Rank | Name | Nation | Semi-final | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jakob Schubert | AUT | 144.8 | 183.6 |
| 2 | Colin Duffy | USA | 157.0 | 160.7 |
| 3 | Tomoa Narasaki | JPN | 148.7 | 156.7 |
| 4 | Sorato ANRAKU | JPN | 184.9 | 149.1 |
| 5 | Toby Roberts | GBR | 164.7 | 143.4 |
| 6 | Adam Ondra | CZE | 144.1 | 141.2 |
| 7 | Dohyun Lee | KOR | 129.7 | 127.1 |
| 8 | Paul Jenft | FRA | 126.3 | 102.8 |
| 9 | Mejdi Schalck | FRA | 125.9 | |
| 10 | Ao YURIKUSA | JPN | 121.6 | |
| 11 | Sean Bailey | USA | 111.5 | |
| 12 | Yannick Flohé | GER | 109.9 | |
| 13 | Alex Megos | GER | 106.9 | |
| 14 | Mickael Mawem | FRA | 105.6 | |
| 15 | Sascha Lehmann | SUI | 101.2 | |
| 16 | Meichi Narasaki | JPN | 97.8 | |
| 17 | Yoshiyuki Ogata | JPN | 92.8 | |
| 18 | Nicolai Uznik | AUT | 91.6 | |
| 19 | Yunchan SONG | KOR | 91.2 | |
| 20 | Sam Avezou | FRA | 82.7 | |
| 22 | Jack Macdougall | GBR | Qual: 224.0 | |
| 35 | Hamish McArthur | GBR | Qual: 94.0 | |
| 41 | Jim Pope | GBR | Qual: 46.0 | |
| 49 | Maximillian Milne | GBR | Qual: 21.5 |
+ finalists: Tomoa Narasaki (JPN), Jakob Schubert (AUT), Adam Ondra (CZE), Dohyun Lee (KOR), Paul Jenft (FRA).
Six British Paraclimbing athletes have qualified for this afternoon's finals:
Jesse Dufton B1
Rich Slocock B2
Lux Losey Sail B3
Sebastian Musson AU2
Abbie Robinson B2
Martha Evans RP3
IFSC World Championships 2023 - Bern - Schedule (all times BST)
AUG 10
08:00-11:00
QUALIFICATIONS
Women's & Men's Speed
12:00-17:30
FINALS
Women's & Men's Paraclimbing
19:00-20:00
FINALS
Women's & Men's Speed
AUG 11
18:00-21:00
FINALS
Women's Boulder & Lead
AUG 12
15:00-17:00
FINALS
Men's Boulder & Lead
Watch live on Eurosport.
Replays available to watch on the Olympic Channel.
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