First National Championship in Olympic Combination in Celje

The PZS Sport Climbing Commission, in collaboration with the Sport Climbing Section of PD Celje Matica, is organizing the first round of the national championship in combined climbing for all categories. The competition, which is free to watch, will take place from Friday, June 14, to Sunday, June 16, 2019, in the sports hall of I. OŠ Celje and on the parking lot opposite the school. In Slovenia, this will be the premiere competition in this sport climbing discipline, in which the best climbers will also compete at next year's Olympic Games in Tokyo.







The Olympic combination includes speed, bouldering, and lead climbing. In Slovenia, the competition will take place for the first time, and all three disciplines will feature the youngest and junior categories of climbers as well as the absolute category with members of the Slovenian sport climbing national team. Among the competitors will be the best Slovenian climbers who compete and win in the World Cup. The most prominent names are Janja Garnbret, multiple overall World Cup winner and world champion in sport climbing, and local climber Jernej Kruder, overall World Cup winner in bouldering and multiple medalist at major competitions.







Garnbret, the first in history since June 9 to win all bouldering events in a calendar year, became the first winner in the new discipline, the Olympic combination, at the 2018 World Championships in Innsbruck. Vita Lukan, silver medalist, and Lučka Rakovec also competed in it at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires; for the other competitors, this will be the first opportunity to compete in the Olympic format. "The combination is a new discipline and not many have competed in this system yet, so this competition will also be a very good training for upcoming events in this format - the 2019 World Championships, additional Olympic qualifiers, European Championships in combined, and of course the Olympic Games themselves," explains the head coach of the Slovenian sport climbing national team, Gorazd Hren.







The competition venue will be Plezalni center Celje, which is the gym of I. Osnovna šola Celje, where there is a tall lead wall and a speed climbing wall, and the parking lot opposite the school, where the bouldering wall will be. The competition will start on Friday at 14:00 and last until 22:00, on Saturday from 9:00 to 22:00, and on Sunday from 9:00 to 16:00.







The National Championship in sport climbing combination in Celje will also count as a national championship event in speed. The most interesting performances are expected in the absolute category with senior team members (over 20 years), joined by juniors (over 18 years) and some cadets (over 16 years). Senior qualifiers are scheduled for Friday, June 14, with speed in two routes at 15:00, four boulder problems at 17:00, and on Saturday, June 15, a lead route at 17:00. Eight women and eight men will qualify directly from the qualifiers to the final, which will start on Sunday, June 16, at 10:00 and is expected to last three hours; finalists will again climb in all three disciplines: speed, bouldering, and lead. The full schedule for all categories is published in the DP Celje announcement. Viewing all events is free for fans.







"It's hard to gauge how the national team members are progressing in the combination since there have been no such competitions to compare with others, but competitors in individual disciplines are definitely progressing, breaking personal records in speed, and we already have new World Cup medalists in bouldering, while lead starts in July. The competition will also carry weight in selecting the team for the World Championships, but it certainly won't be our main factor," outlines Hren, pleased that the Olympic format competition will take place in Slovenia: "It's important primarily because it's an Olympic discipline that will be at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and we're competing for spots there too. I think it's right that the PZS Sport Climbing Commission took responsibility and, together with ŠPO Celje Matica, embarked on this project. I know organizing such a competition is a big undertaking, so I would like to thank everyone who will make it possible once again."







The Summer Olympic Games will be held in Tokyo, Japan, from July 24 to August 9, 2020, with the first tickets awarded this August at the World Championships, also in Japan. Since only one set of medals is available for the first time at the Olympics, the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) created a special discipline, the so-called Olympic combination, a kind of climbing triathlon. Competitors first compete twice in speed climbing, then four boulder problems in qualifiers or three in the final, and the last is the lead test. The final ranking is determined by the product of results from individual disciplines; the winner is the one with the lowest, and due to multiplication, results can quickly turn around.