Janez Svoljšak 4th at the World Championships

Slovenian competitor Janez Svoljšak (AO PD Kranj), the current European lead champion, placed just off the podium - an excellent fourth place - at the 2017 Ice Climbing World Championships in strong competition on February 5 in French Champagny, which is his best result of the season.



In recent years, the most successful Slovenian ice climber Janez Svoljšak (AO PD Kranj) won the title of European champion 2016 in ice climbing last year, and at the 2017 World Championships hosted by Champagny-En-Vanoise, he achieved his best placement of the season - fourth place in lead. "I climbed all three routes at the championships well. I'm glad that I finally climbed the final well once this season. In strong competition, it was just a little short for the podium, but given the season, I'm satisfied with the result," said the 23-year-old competitor, who was the 2014 world junior champion.



The Škofja Loka native achieved his best result this year at the most important event of the season. After the semifinals, he was even third, but a mistake near the top of the final route cost him the medal. He finished the 2017 World Cup in seventh place overall, having qualified among the best in all five events. At the opening event in American Durango, he finished eighth, the second World Cup in Chinese Beijing fifth, the third event in South Korea sixth, in Saas Fee in Switzerland fifth again, and at the final World Cup in Rabenstein, he finished ninth, just missing the final.



The 2017 world lead champion was South Korean HeeYong Park, also this year's World Cup winner, second was Swiss Yannick Glatthard, third Russian Nikolai Kuzovlev. In the women's competition, South Korean Woonseon Shin won, also the overall World Cup winner, ahead of Italian Angelika Rainer and Russian Maria Tolokonina.



After the Durango event and before heading to China, Svoljšak repeated the route Saphira (M15-) in Colorado, currently considered the most difficult mixed route in the USA and one of the hardest in the world, and on January 30, 2017, Svoljšak made the fourth ascent as the first Slovenian in this demanding route.