Janja Garnbret qualifies for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

At the Sport Climbing World Championships in Hachioji, Japan, Janja Garnbret finished third in the combined qualifications, will compete for her third medal at this championship on Tuesday, and has already secured her participation in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where unfortunately the other Slovenian combined climbers - Mia Krampl, Vita Lukan, and Lučka Rakovec - have not yet qualified.







In the battle for the combined final and Olympic quotas, 20 sport climbers competed in three disciplines - first speed, then four bouldering problems awaited them, and as the last one, a lead route. The product of placements in all disciplines determined the final ranking. The Slovenian sport climbing heroine Janja Garnbret (112) was seventh in speed, second on boulders, and unexpectedly eighth in lead, which was enough for third place overall. The best product was achieved by British climber Shauna Coxsey (42) and Japanese Akiyo Noguchi (80).







"It turned out great, as I'm already qualified for the Olympics, so really unbelievable! Today was a bit tiring, speed was okay, boulders were great, I'm not too satisfied with how I climbed the lead route, but I can fix that in two days - but it doesn't matter because I'm already qualified for the Olympics. I can't wait to be back here in a year, until then we'll train to be well prepared," rejoiced the 20-year-old Carinthian, who has already won two gold medals at this World Championship, in lead and bouldering, and will compete for her third on Tuesday, having already secured her spot at next year's Summer Olympics in Tokyo today.







"I think fatigue is starting to set in now, I'd like to go home and rest a bit, but I'm having such a great time hanging out with the others, climbing, and enjoying Japan, so I think I'll hold out for these days. Tomorrow is a rest day, so I'll be rested for the combined final, everything will be great," Garnbret looks ahead, today third among the top eight who qualified for Tuesday's final, where seven quotas for the Tokyo Olympics will be distributed. One ticket to the Olympics is already in Janja Garnbret's pocket (Šaleški AO), as four Japanese will compete in the final, and each country can have at most two competitors at the Olympics.







Unfortunately, the other three Slovenian combined climbers have not yet qualified for the Olympics: Mia Krampl (AO PD Kranj) climbed to 14th place, Vita Lukan (ŠPO PD Radovljica) 16th, and Lučka Rakovec (PK FA) 17th. "Although I didn't qualify for the final, I'm happy because it was my first such test and it was quite tiring, I have to admit, and quite fun to compete. I climbed speed well compared to my results, the bouldering problems were a bit easier than at other competitions, lead seemed quite easy to me, so I was quite angry when I fell, even though I wasn't tired yet and didn't give 100 percent. I like competing, but it's starting to build up a bit, not so much physical fatigue, but the mental fatigue present at competitions. It seems to me that we're all exhausted," summarized 19-year-old Krampl, who became world runner-up in lead three days ago.







"It was quite tiring, it took a long time, but we survived, didn't climb our best, but it is what it is. The boulders seemed well set to me, I maybe made one mistake too many, but I saw myself at the top of all four, lead seemed too easy until the last five moves, but it's probably hard to set a route when you have boulder specialists, speed specialists, and lead specialists in it," reflected 18-year-old Lukan, who achieved her best result at this year's Worlds with 7th in lead, adding: "Lack of quality training is noticeable, as we're constantly competing, no time for good training, maybe that's one factor why we didn't climb our best today. Regarding conditions in Slovenia - they're not exactly fascinating, nowhere can we train all three disciplines, but each discipline can be trained well."







"I'm quite disappointed, I climbed speed okay, but not boulders and lead ... it happens. After a long week or two of competitions, it's completely normal and I'm disappointed, but there's another opportunity in a few months. Fatigue is showing, on one hand I'm glad it's over, but I wanted to climb the last round even if not in the final, so I could say I climbed well, but I'm still satisfied with the World Championship," said 18-year-old Rakovec, who qualified 9th in lead and 12th in bouldering at the Worlds. The next additional Olympic qualifiers will be at the end of November in France, where the top six will get spots.







In the combined qualifications in Hachioji, only Jernej Kruder (ŠPO PD Celje Matica) qualified from the Slovenian men, who will compete for the final and Olympic ticket on Monday.