Gregor Vezonik wins bronze at the Bouldering World Championships

Gregor Vezonik earned a bronze medal in his first World Championship final, which is another exceptional achievement in his career that has truly exploded this season. The 23-year-old from Ravne has already finished fifth in the Bouldering World Cup this year, and this time he complemented the Carinthian sport climbing success initiated by Janja Garnbret with gold in bouldering and silver in lead, as well as bronze para-climber Tanja Glušič.



Gregor Vezonik (AK Ravne) climbed to the bronze medal at the Bouldering World Championships with three tops and one zone in the final in Innsbruck, the second Slovenian men's bouldering medal in this discipline and the third Slovenian overall in bouldering out of a total of thirteen. "It's really unbelievable. What has been happening this season was unimaginable in previous seasons, so I'm really happy. In the end, it was a tough fight for the medal and I succeeded. Super," rejoiced the 23-year-old from Ravne, who placed the cherry on top of an excellent season with bronze in Innsbruck: "On such big competitions, you have to enjoy the final, and I approached the final round that way to enjoy it as much as possible. I tried to start each boulder anew, take it as a new story. I think I did great because I enjoyed it, while being focused, and I think it really clicked." The world champion was the youngest finalist at 19 years old, Japanese Kai Harada, for whom this gold is the first medal at major competitions, silver was celebrated by the playful South Korean Jongwon Chon, also winner of the Asian Games.



The Carinthian sport climber, in addition to his victory at the last 2018 Bouldering World Cup event in Munich, stepped onto the third step of the podium twice more this year, otherwise finishing the World Cup in fifth place overall. In Innsbruck, he competed in his first World Championship final and spiced it most nobly with bronze, while at the previous World Championship in Paris he achieved 45th place. "Such results in such competition take time. There are many factors that influence it. From training a bit more this year, having several competitions behind me, almost finishing my studies. If you believe, anything is possible," emphasized Vezi, who had sport climbing practically placed in his cradle by his climbing family.



Which region has become Slovenia's climbing powerhouse? "Carinthia, it seems now really Carinthia," laughed Gregor from the heart and added that hard training contributes to it. 19-year-old Janja Garnbret (Šaleški AO) could certainly confirm his words, who the evening before became the world champion in bouldering and entered history as the first woman to boast the title of world champion in both disciplines, as she won lead two years ago in Paris and was second in Innsbruck.



In addition to the two heroes of sport climbing from Carinthia comes the deaf-blind climber Tanja Glušič (AK Ravne), who won para-climbing bronze in Austria, which is also celebrated by para-climber Gregor Selak, otherwise from Gorenjska. Slovenia has thus won a total of five medals at this year's World Championships so far.



The other Slovenian contender Jernej Kruder (ŠPO PD Celje Matica), the overall winner of the 2018 Bouldering World Cup, successfully solved the first three final bouldering problems after winning the qualifiers, but failed the fourth, and the zone unfortunately was not enough to advance. "The first feelings are of course disappointment, because I know I climbed the hardest boulder for the others too, but that's part of the game. I didn't even expect to be in every final this year, so eighth place isn't that bad, but it's really a shame because I was just a little short and could have climbed in the final," said the 27-year-old from Celje, who became vice-champion at the 2014 World Championships in Munich and won Slovenia's first men's medal at World Championships. Neither former world champions Japanese Tomoa Narasaki nor Czech Adam Ondra qualified for the final.



"We hoped for a medal, as we have had two contenders in play all year. Gregor climbed excellently in qualifiers, semifinals, and final. We are very happy for him that he took third place. Crazy! All the effort he put into training is finally paying off. Shame that Jernej wasn't in the final too, who climbed excellently in the semifinal up to the last boulder, where he got a bit lost, so unfortunately it ended in semifinals for him," said the selector of the Slovenian sport climbing team Gorazd Hren after the men's bouldering event of the season's competitions, whose right hands are coaches Urh Čehovin and Luka Fonda, and physiotherapist Peter Hribar is indispensable.



The evening before, Janja Garnbret (Šaleški AO) won the world champion title in bouldering and entered history as the first woman to boast the title of world champion in both disciplines, as she won lead two years ago in Paris and was second in Innsbruck. Katja Kadić (PK Škofja Loka) also competed in the women's semifinal, climbing to twelfth place in bouldering at her first World Championships.



At the Bouldering World Championships, Slovenian colors were also represented by Mia Krampl (AO PD Kranj), who placed 33rd, Mina Markovič (ŠPK Plus) 37th, Urška Repušič (ŠPO APD Kozjak) and Domen Škofic (ŠPO PD Radovljica) 39th, Vita Lukan (ŠPO PD Radovljica) 51st, Anže Peharc (AO PD Kranj) 53rd, Tjaša Slemenšek (Šaleški AO) 63rd, Zan Sudar (AK Ravne) 68th, and Luka Potočar (ŠPO PD Radovljica) 81st.