Gold-silver Janja Garnbret also first winner of Olympic combined...

Gold-silver Janja Garnbret also first winner of Olympic combined.

On the last day of the sport climbing world championships in Innsbruck, the combined final was held, in which the six most versatile female and male climbers competed for the first time in speed, bouldering, and lead, including Slovenian sport climbing heroine Janja Garnbret, who after the world bouldering champion title and runner-up in lead also won the steel climbers' climbing triathlon. The 19-year-old Carinthian earned her third medal in Austria and raised the total number of Slovenian medals at world championships to fourteen.



The combined final was like a climbing triathlon of speed, bouldering, and lead climbing, held for the first time in Olympic format in Austria. As the icing on the cake of this year's world championships, the top six by sum of placements in all disciplines competed, as the competition will also take place at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics - the opening speed event was followed by bouldering, with lead last.



Janja Garnbret (Šaleški AO) secured her ticket to the so-called Olympic combined of all three disciplines with the world championship bouldering win, second place in lead climbing, and 47th place in speed, where she set her personal record with 10.624 seconds. The competitors - three Europeans and three Asians among them - first competed in speed on D-day, where South Korean Sol Sa won, and Garnbret was fifth. But the cards shuffled already in the bouldering event, where the Slovenian heroine, the current world bouldering champion, dominated, stepping to second place in the sum of placements as the only one with four tops, and climbed in the lead final as the penultimate. Like Austrian Jessica Pilz, Janja also reached the top of the final route, but almost half a minute faster than the world lead champion, so she convincingly won and celebrated the very first win in the Olympic combined. "In speed, I expected a slightly better time, but it got stuck a bit. No problem, because I knew I had two more disciplines. I really enjoyed the bouldering final, as well as lead. We took all the boulders as if it was a world championship only in bouldering, they seemed a bit easier to us. The lead route was also interesting, endurance-based, with a jump in between, so I could show myself there too, plus I had a better time than the Austrian and also won," summarized the first impressions of the simply best in the world, followed by the Korean and the Austrian, fourth and fifth were Japanese Akiyo Noguchi and Miho Nonaka, sixth Swiss Petra Klingler.



Currently the most versatile climber in the world, who entered history as the first woman to win both bouldering and lead titles, which she achieved two years ago in Paris as the second youngest world champion in history, added another historic milestone: the first win in the new competition discipline - Olympic combined: "Given the reaction after bouldering when I cried, bouldering means a bit more to me right now, because I wasn't world champion in that discipline yet, the combined is also a really big achievement. It showed that I am the most versatile competitor, which means a lot and is a very good foundation for Tokyo. I'm really happy that I succeeded and that I am the first winner of the combined."



The competition was a real marathon challenge that lasted continuously for over three hours, with 15 minutes break between each round, but the finalists used it to inspect the next discipline's route. After nine competition days, they were visibly tired, but tried to perform at their best in the new discipline that will decide the first sport climbing Olympic medals in 2020. Garnbret, after the unlucky eleven seconds that - although as the only competitor she topped all four routes - separated her from the world lead champion title a week ago, this time managed to show that she is almost unbeatable in this discipline too: "I really hoped to have a better time than the Austrian and beat her at least this time, if not then, I admit I thought about it. I'm really happy that I climbed the route again under pressure and I'm really proud of myself."



"All praise to Janja. Despite the fatigue of all the girls competing in the combined, she stayed strong and gathered enough motivation to climb all three events in one go. In speed we know where we stand, so the result was quite expected, in bouldering she showed why she is world champion, while saving enough energy for lead, where she again showed that she climbed the route easily and once again it's a pity that the route wasn't a bit harder in the first competition," was proud also the selector of the Slovenian sport climbing team Gorazd Hren, whose right hands are coaches Urh Čehovin and Luka Fonda, indispensable is also physiotherapist Peter Hribar. "If I draw a line under the championship, it couldn't have been almost better. Of course, a bit of luck was missing for another final or semifinal. I would be very happy if Jernej was in the final too, if it worked out for Domnu, because he was really prepared, Gregor made a surplus, really excellent result, Janja I think also put things in their place and showed who is currently the best in the world in climbing," glowed Hren, also Janja's personal coach.



The Slovenian sport climbing team won four precious medals at this year's championship and thus raised the total number of medals at world championships to ten. Martina Čufar became the first Slovenian world champion in lead in 2001. Mina Markovič was third in combined in 2009, 2011, and 2014, also world runner-up in lead in 2014 and third in this discipline in Paris in 2016. Maja Vidmar won bronze in lead in 2007 and 2009, in men's competition the highest was Jernej Kruder with second place in bouldering in Munich in 2014. Janja Garnbret became world lead champion in Paris two years ago, in 2018 she won silver in the same discipline and became world bouldering champion and Olympic combined champion, in Innsbruck Gregor Vezonik also earned bouldering bronze. Slovenia can also boast four paraclimbing medals, carried by deaf-blind climber Tanja Glušič, silver in 2014 and bronze in Innsbruck, and climber with multiple sclerosis Gregor Selak, bronze this year and two years ago.



In the afternoon, the men also competed in the combined final. The title was won by Austrian Jakob Schubert, world lead champion, Czech Adam Ondra, former world champion in lead and bouldering, was second, third German Jan Hojer, European bouldering champion. Japanese stayed below the podium: Kai Harada, world bouldering champion, fourth, Tomoa Narasaki fifth and Kokoro Fujii sixth. No Slovenians in the final, highest placed Jernej Kruder (ŠPO PD Celje Matica) achieved twelfth place in the Olympic combined sum, among the top twenty also Mia Krampl (AO PD Kranj) and Domen Škofic (ŠPO PD Radovljica) in 18th place.