Garnbret the second youngest world champion

Janja Garnbret second youngest world champion, Mina Markovič bronze in Paris, Škofic in Sunday's final.

Janja Garnbret with a victory accompanied by standing ovations from a multi-thousand crowd in the Bercy arena, and Mina Markovič with third place have set a new milestone for Slovenian climbing at the World Championships in lead climbing in Paris. The barely 17-year-old Carinthian girl repeated the success of Martina Čufar, the world champion of 2001, after 15 years, while her more experienced teammate ensured with bronze that Slovenian sport climbing for the first time in history had two competitors on the podium of the World Championships. Domen Škofic, second after the semifinals, will also compete for a medal in Sunday's men's lead final, while Urban Primožič finished the competition in 12th place.



Young but already experienced and competition-hardened Janja Garnbret (Šaleški AO), who has won everything possible in the youth category and became the senior European runner-up last year, won the world champion title at her first senior World Championships. And in top style, as she was leading after qualifications, the best in semifinals, and crowned the final route with the top, raised fist and a smile from ear to ear. "For my first World Championships I really wanted to go without expectations that buried me in Arc and perhaps in Imst, so I wasn't burdened in Paris. As a little girl I dreamed of competing in the World Cup one day and then becoming a world champion, which has now come true. I can't even describe this happiness and I still can't believe I did it," laughed the second youngest world champion in lead, who already felt excellent, strong and well prepared in the isolation zone, climbed the final route confidently to the top, where the holds were very slippery, so she hurried through the upper part and triumphantly raised her fist amid standing ovations from the multi-thousand crowd in the Paris Bercy arena.



Janja's career is skyrocketing, multiple junior European and world champion has already reached the top at her first senior championships. "My form really improves from year to year and I hope it continues like this. When I achieved those successes in the youth category, I was really happy and couldn't imagine winning the World Championships among seniors too. I'm still young, I still have a long career ahead, so I have many goals of what I want to achieve, but not too big ones," remains modest the teenager who has been leading the overall World Cup standings since the start of the season. "This season I want to win the overall World Cup standings, but I don't burden myself with it, I see each competition as individual, never as a sum. I think I've done enough this year, three World Cup wins and the world champion title, I have no words," emotions overwhelmed her again when after the initial three wins in the lead season, fifth and third place she returned to the top step: "In this, the head was more important than my physical strength, in my head I had to put everything in the right place. I couldn't burden myself, but just enjoy climbing, which was key."



Mina Markovič (ŠPK Plus) also delivered a top performance, in qualifications alongside her eleven years younger teammate, in semifinals right behind her, and crowned the final with a bronze medal. "I'm extremely happy about these podium places. The World Championships is definitely the highlight of this season and I'm very glad I decided to prepare and compete in Paris. After a slightly less successful start to the season, I put my head, form and training together and at this competition I saw that everything can click, which is really incredible. Double Slovenian podium is something historic, congratulations to Janja for the win and I wish Domnu to climb well in the final," rejoiced the 28-year-old climber who fell just below the top in the final. "Throughout the competition I felt good and prepared, knowing we did good training. Before the final, already during warm-up I felt my hands weren't cooperating with me, and it was quite hard to perform, but despite fatigue they cooperated enough with me, otherwise I wouldn't have gone so high. Definitely could have gone a hold or two higher, but I'm more than satisfied with this," said the most experienced member of the Slovenian team, also the current European champion and three-time overall World Cup winner in lead climbing, who returned from the previous World Championships in Gijón with silver in lead, and in 2009, 2011 and 2014 was also third in combined.



The unstoppable Slovenian duo was joined on the podium by Belgian Anak Verhoeven, currently second in the World Cup standings, who also topped the final route like Garnbret but took silver due to a worse semifinal performance. South Korean Jain Kim, world champion two years ago, this time missed the medals and placed fourth.



"In Paris a real dream scenario happened, which I experienced very emotionally. Janja deserved the victory. With the first competitions of the season she showed she is at the top level, perhaps after three wins her head played a bit with her, but we managed to put her back together at the right moment, convince her to enjoy climbing, because when she enjoys, she is unbeatable. She herself said she would play the card of being as little burdened as possible, which I think paid off," did not hide his joy Gorazd Hren, Janja's long-time coach and head of the Slovenian sport climbing team, who was also satisfied with Markovič's performance: "It's incredible that we got double podium. I'm really happy for Mina, who struggled a bit with her form at the start of the season, when she decided that climbing means so much to her that she can't stop competing yet. I'm glad she put it together at the right moment and climbed a good final, in which she showed her experience, climbed to the penultimate move, which was enough for third place. More than satisfied with her result." He also emphasized that "behind these successes stands the whole team, besides me especially Urh Čehovin and Luka Fonda. As a team we work very well and I think the results show we are going in the right direction, as evidenced by the good atmosphere in the team."



The Slovenian team has another iron in the fire, as Domen Škofic (ŠPO PD Radovljica) competes in Sunday's men's lead final, finishing semifinals in second place. Currently leading the overall World Cup standings in lead with three wins this year, after ninth result in Thursday's qualifications he had to admit superiority only to Czech Adam Ondra in Saturday's semifinals, leaving Frenchman Gautier Supper third behind him. "After qualifications I had worse feelings because I didn't climb the first, easier route, in the second, harder one I regained confidence. Before semifinals I was a bit worried, because qualifying for the final at the World Championships, which is every two years, is not a given, something can go wrong and you think a lot about it. I'm really very happy that I climbed top today, what will happen in the final, we'll see," was satisfied the 21-year-old from Radovljica, who took fourth place at the 2014 World Championships in lead in Gijón, the final in Paris awaits him on Sunday, September 18, at 15:30. Live broadcast can be followed on the website of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC).



The other Slovenian semifinalist Urban Primožič (PK Škofja Loka), who was also ninth after qualifications, improved his placement from the previous World Championships, which he finished 14th in Gijón, to final 12th place. "Already in semifinals there was a large audience in the arena, so it was very nice to perform. I'm satisfied with the climbing, I didn't make mistakes and showed my maximum. The semifinal route had no particularly difficult sections, even if you climbed slower, so there were few opportunities for mistakes, better trained climbers went higher. Even if the result could have been a bit better, I'm satisfied," drew a line under this year's championships the 24-year-old from Škofja Loka.