Gregor Šegel bronze in Brno, Maja Šuštar Habjan in final

The Slovenian competitive ice climber Gregor Šegel stepped onto the podium on December 7th in strong competition at the third race of the Continental Cup 2024/2025 in competitive ice climbing in Brno. After achieving his maiden victory and first podium finish in Great Britain this February, he continues excellently into the new season. The Slovenian success in the Czech Republic was complemented by Maja Šuštar Habjan with eighth place in the final.

On December 7th, 2024, the third race of the Continental Cup in competitive ice climbing took place in Brno under the auspices of the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA). At the popular event in the Czech Republic, a record number of competitors gathered, with 118 participants from 17 countries, 84 men and 34 women, including a seven-member Slovenian team.

Gregor Šegel (AO PD Ljubljana-Matica) demonstrated excellent form already in the qualifications, where the organizers set up five differently difficult qualification routes on a tower over thirty meters high for both men's and women's categories, with climbing time-limited to four minutes. Šegel topped four routes, and in the last, longest one, he finished just a few holds below the top, which was enough for third place in qualifications and a safe advance to the final.

The final route surprised both competitors and spectators, as both routes - for women and men - had an extremely difficult start on poor and unpredictable holds. In the men's competition, only one competitor reached the top, Swiss Johnathan Arthur Brown, while an extremely poor hold in the first quarter of the route prevented progress for all other finalists - only the runner-up, Czech Matyáš Lienerth, managed one more move. Third place was thus decided by qualification ranking, which propelled Šegel onto the podium after his excellent qualification climbing.

"I'm satisfied with third place, as I climbed excellently in the qualification routes. It's a shame that due to the technical move in the lower part of the final route we couldn't show everything we know and can do," said Gregor Šegel nonetheless satisfied, who notices the fruits of the good work of the entire Slovenian national team in competitive ice climbing: "The whole team started the season successfully. The progress is mainly due to the structured year-round training plan of the new national team coach Klemen Premrl and the support of the Alpine Association of Slovenia. It allows us to focus more concentrated on competitions."

This is the second biggest success for the Carinthian competitor living in Polzela. Šegel achieved his premiere victory on February 10th this year at the last race of the Continental Cup 2023/24 in competitive ice climbing in Sunderland in Great Britain, and started this season with fifth place in Žilina in Slovakia, just one hold from the podium.

Šegel's success in Brno was complemented by Slovenia's best competitive ice climber in recent years, Maja Šuštar Habjan (AO PD Domžale), who qualified for the final for the first time this season. She handled the qualifications excellently, topping two routes, slipping just below the top in two, and in one, her time expired in the upper quarter, advancing to the final as fifth. The very difficult route start was selective also in the women's final, as most competitors ended their performance due to slips in this technical section, unfortunately including the Kamnik native, who finished eighth. No woman reached the top, but Japanese Haruko Takeuchi, already the second time this year winner of a Continental Cup race, got closest. Second and third places went to Dutch climbers Annick Teepe and Marianne van der Steen.

"I'm really happy with the qualification to the final, as it rewarded the effort of this season's preparations. But I also think it's a shame that the route setters in the thirty-meter final route, where endurance and time could have been selective, decided to use such smooth holds in the initial part, where the ice axe holds only by luck. But I'm glad the team is growing and that two motivated compatriots, Marta and Katarina, joined me at the races, for whom I hope we will attack some more competitions of this format together," said Šuštar Habjan, who was third in the overall Continental Cup standings in the 2018/2019 season, otherwise winner of the race in 2018 in Žilina in Slovakia, second in 2017 in Bratislava, third in 2022 in Žilina and 2023 in Glasgow.

Debutantes of the Continental Cup races, Marta Krejan Čokl (AK Ravne na Koroškem) and Katarina Legat (AO PD Kranj), showed promising performances for their first such competition. Marta ended climbing in all qualification routes in the upper half due to time expiration, while Katarina was mostly surprised by time limits or slips on poor holds at similar spots, finishing 27th or 29th.

The finalist of the previous race Marko Guno (AO PD Rašica) was surprised by a slip in the lower part of the first route, which, despite good climbing in the remaining qualifications, prevented advancement to the final due to tough competition, placing him 24th. Miha Habjan (Akademski AO) mostly ended his performances after three-quarters of the routes with solid climbing, enough only for 58th place. Blaž Grad (AO PD Nova Gorica) also showed solid climbing, but surprised by a difficult spot at the start of one route, finished 74th.

As an interesting fact, the competition venue in Brno is actually a legacy of Nazism. During World War II, Hitler planned an extensive network of highways connecting various parts of Germany and its occupied territories, including then Czechoslovakia, which Nazi Germany tried to incorporate into its infrastructure projects to consolidate its dominance and improve transport connectivity. One of these projects was supposed to be a highway bridge near Brno, which they started building but did not complete. Construction was usually carried out by war prisoners or forced laborers, but due to Germany's defeat in 1945, the project was abandoned. How to turn bad intentions into something good was shown by the Czechs, who used the remnants of the Nazi regime and repurposed them, as the partially completed pillar in Brno, due to its location and height, is today very popular among ice climbers and very suitable for competitive ice climbing.

The final was broadcast live by Czech national television and UIAA on its YouTube channel. Full results are published on the UIAA website, photo gallery on the organizers' website.