Garnbret and Markovič best in semifinals

Garnbret and Markovič best in semifinals, paraclimber Selak bronze at World Championship in Paris.

The third competition day at the Sport Climbing World Championship in Paris was very successful for the Slovenian national team. Janja Garnbret and Mina Markovič convincingly qualified for the Saturday final in lead with first and second place respectively, Rebeka Kamin took 21st place at her first World Championship, boulderer Jernej Kruder finished the competition in 11th place. Paraclimber Gregor Selak climbed to a bronze medal in the Rp3 category on September 16, which is the second Slovenian medal at Sport Paraclimbing World Championships.



The unstoppable Slovenian women's duo performed excellently also in the semifinals after sharing first place in the lead qualifications. The youngest member of the Slovenian national team, 17-year-old Janja Garnbret (Šaleški AO), reached the highest height of the semifinal route at her debut World Championship. "I already felt really great in the qualifications and the tops of both routes were an excellent start to my first World Championship. I wasn't nervous at all in the semifinals, probably because I had no expectations, I also felt great during warm-up and just enjoyed it in the semifinals. I didn't think about how I would climb the route, I entered it and climbed it as I know how. For the final, I also want to enjoy climbing," said the satisfied young Carinthian woman, who has already won three (out of five) World Cup events this year.



Just two moves - and one place - lower in the Bercy hall semifinals climbed Mina Markovič (ŠPK Plus), the current world runner-up, European champion and three-time overall World Cup winner in lead climbing. "So far everything has gone very well. Even if there is quite a bit of tension or positive excitement before the competition, when we get to the isolation zone, we warm up great together with the guys and you only think about the route waiting for you, which has so far been followed by good climbing. We took care of the form in previous trainings and all I want is one more such climb in the final," said the most experienced member of the Slovenian national team, who returned from the World Championship in Spanish Gijón two years ago with silver in lead and bronze in combined. Third place in the semifinals went to the current world champion, South Korean Jain Kim.



Semifinalist in lead was also 19-year-old Rebeka Kamin (ŠPO PD Domžale), this year's newcomer to the biggest competitions, who climbed to 21st place: "In the last two seasons I only competed at the World Cup event in Kranj, this year is the first season when I participated in all World Cup events, this is also my first World Championship. I am satisfied with qualifying for the semifinals, not completely with the semifinal performance, but there will be more opportunities and I believe it will be better next time."



Slovenian colors in the bouldering semifinals were represented by Jernej Kruder (ŠPO PD Celje - Matica), who took second place at the 2014 World Championship in Munich and thus climbed Slovenia's first bouldering medal at World Championships. Even though he didn't reach as high this year, he wasn't disappointed. "I'm not too disappointed with the climbing, although the result could definitely have been better. Neither in qualifications nor in semifinals was the emphasis on strength, but on technical climbing. I was physically prepared enough, but it was just complicated enough that it didn't click for me. In qualifications, luck smiled on me after a long time and I barely qualified for semifinals, where it was the opposite. Boulders are boulders and no matter the form, you don't know what to expect," summed up the 25-year-old Celijan.



"Janja and Mina felt good in isolation, when I looked at the route I was a bit tense, but when they started climbing, I saw that the route suited them and they climbed it nicely. I am very satisfied with their climbing and I hope the final route will go just as well. I haven't seen Jernej's and Rebeka's climbing yet, because I was in the isolation zone. Jernej's 11th place is definitely not a bad result, even though the goal was the final which was close, for Rebeka I can say that she can be satisfied with her first World Championship competition, qualification to semifinals and final result," commented the semifinal performances of his charges right after the competition by the selector of the Slovenian sport climbing national team Gorazd Hren.



The women's lead final is scheduled for Saturday, September 17, at 9 p.m. Saturday's events will start at 9 a.m. with the men's lead semifinals, where Domen Škofic (ŠPO PD Radovljica) and Urban Primožič (PK Škofja Loka) will compete, who share 9th place after qualifications. Live broadcasts of the competitions can be followed on the website of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC).



In the World Championship qualifications also competed Tjaša Kalan (AO PD Kranj), who placed 27th in lead, boulderers Julija Kruder (ŠPO PD Celje - Matica) and Tjaša Slemenšek (Šaleški AO), who finished 27th and 29th respectively, Martin Bergant (PK Škofja Loka), 37th in lead, and Gregor Vezonik (AK Ravne) 45th in boulders.



Simultaneously with Friday's semifinal competitions, the paraclimbers' final also took place. Slovenian competitor Gregor Selak won a bronze medal in the Rp3 category at the Sport Paraclimbing World Championship in Paris on September 16, which is the second Slovenian medal at Paraclimbing World Championships.



Gregor Selak was a promising member of the Slovenian youth national team in sport climbing in his teenage years, then stopped competing for a few years, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2014, and returned to sport climbing as a paraclimber this January. As a member of the Slovenian para national team, he performed excellently this year at the World Cup event in Italian Campitello di Fassa, where he won in June, and returned from the masters in Austrian Imst in July with a silver medal. He crowned a successful season with a bronze medal at the World Championship in France, where first and second places went to Frenchmen Romain Pagnoux and Mathieu Besnard.



In the Rp3 category, where climbers with limited joint movement, strength and balance compete, he already finished qualifications in third place, which he held in the final and with bronze achieved the second paraclimbing medal for Slovenia. The first was won in 2014 in Gijón by Carinthian Tanja Glušič, who did not compete at this year's championship.



"The first route in qualifications was very easy, nine competitors reached the top. The second qualification route was technically demanding, so no competitor reached the top and thus the selection was made. With the third result, I qualified for the final, where I started well, but in the middle route in the overhang I started to rest, but I didn't recover, instead it took my strength for continuing. Nevertheless, I am satisfied with the performance, although I could have done it better if I had decided differently. For the first championship, the bronze medal is very pleasing and gives me momentum for the future, for the next competitions," rejoiced the 27-year-old Škofjeločan.