Potočar world runner-up in lead, Krampl silver...

Potočar world runner-up in lead, Krampl silver in combined.

Just 19-year-old Luka Potočar became world runner-up in lead climbing in Moscow and thus added the first men's medal from the World Championships in lead to Slovenia's excellent season, while Mia Krampl won silver in the combined event. The young Gorenjci added the 19th and 20th medals from world championships to the collection of the Slovenian national team in sport climbing.



The youngest member of the Slovenian sport climbing national team at the World Championships in Moscow, Luka Potočar (ŠPO PD Radovljica), performed the best at the world championships. Third in the lead semi-final, he qualified for his first World Championship final, where he once again showed excellent readiness and crowned the top of the route with a silver medal. "It sounds more than excellent - world runner-up in lead! I'm extremely satisfied that I succeeded, that I added the icing on the cake to my good season, that I finally achieved what I trained for. Before the final, they told me that I could write myself into history with the first men's medal in lead for Slovenia, which I think gave me additional positive pressure on what I can do for this sport in Slovenia. I'm really glad that I succeeded in that too," said the proud 19-year-old from Jesenice, who with silver at the Kranj competition in early September first stepped onto the adult podium, and ended the World Cup season in fourth place in lead: "The podium in Kranj was certainly confirmation that I'm in good form, and also through the competition in Moscow I saw that I can compete with the best, that I just need to climb as I know how, and I can reach the top."

The victory was celebrated by Austrian Jakob Schubert, the only one besides Potočar to reach the top of the final route, but with a better position from the semi-final, third was Briton Hamish McArthur, who reached the top but couldn't hold it. "For the final route, I'd say it was a bit too easy, which was also seen in the results, as all finalists were quite close together. The difficulty was good, the last part was a bit bouldery, so you could rest quite a bit for the continuation to the top. The jump at the beginning was something you have to prepare for specifically. I tried to worry as little as possible about it, I made a small mistake, a slip, but I'm glad that I managed to hold on and relax, so I could then do the jump without problems, but it was close that I would have ended the performance already then. That's why I'm glad that I could then relax and it didn't disturb me for continuing the route," relived the new world runner-up the final climbing, who has already achieved notable successes in Russia in youth competition: in 2019 in Voronezh he became youth European champion in lead, the year before in Moscow at the youth world championships he won silver in this discipline: "Moscow is a lucky place for me, but I think the competitions were completely different, the wall was different too, so this location is just coincidence, but I'm glad that I also won the youth European champion title in Russia. Obviously I have an extra drive for medals in Russia."



On the throne of the world lead champion, which Janja Garnbret skipped at the championships in Moscow, is now Korean Chaehyun Seo, second was American Natalia Grossman, also this year's boulder champion, third Italian Laura Rogora. From the fight for medals, 2019 world runner-up in lead Mia Krampl (AO PD Kranj) said goodbye already in the semi-final, but she won the silver medal in the World Championships combined, for which there was no special competition this year, but it was the product of placements in individual disciplines. "In combined I was counting on a good performance, since this year I invested a lot in it, also trained speed and boulders, as in a normal year I would probably prepare more for lead. I'm satisfied and happy that it worked out and I got the medal in combined, although I admit that the competition was a bit reduced. But I'm very sorry that I couldn't show it in lead, because I think I was very well prepared and this performance certainly wasn't perfect and what I imagined. I'm most satisfied that I managed to make a good time in speed, and with the performance in lead qualifications, where despite nervousness I managed to relax and climb well, which however I didn't manage in the semi-final, so my result at the end was worse than expected," summed up the impressions the 21-year-old sport climber from Golnik, 19th in lead, 23rd in speed and 29th in boulders. In the women's competition, Austrian Jessica Pilz celebrated in combined, in men's Swiss Yanick Flohe.



The most successful among Slovenian women was Lučka Rakovec (PK FA) in lead in 14th place "The semi-final certainly didn't turn out as I wished. The middle part wasn't so demanding for me, and I also rested two moves before I fell, so the fall was more unexpected. I didn't manage to climb as I wanted. My world championship though - with boulders I'm principally satisfied, with lead unfortunately not, in qualifications I did climb well, but I didn't manage to show that in the semi-final either," was disappointed the 20-year-old from Ljubljana. Vita Lukan (ŠPO PD Radovljica) finished the championship in 16th place, Tjaša Slemenšek (Šaleški AO) qualified to 21st, Lana Skušek (PK Scena) and Martin Bergant (PK Škofja Loka) to 24th, Domen Škofic (ŠPO PD Radovljica) to 25th and Milan Preskar (PK Kamnik) to 27th place. Anže Peharc (AO PD Kranj), with sixth place the most successful Slovenian boulderer at the world championships, finished lead in 51st place.

"The world championships didn't start as we wanted. With the girls there was no boulder final, which isn't a disaster, since if we don't count Janja, this year we had Vita and Katja in the final only once, so the wish was final and attack on the podium, which didn't happen. With the guys it worked out, Anže reached the final, attacked the podium, but unfortunately had such bad skin that it didn't go according to his plans. We're not disappointed, sixth place is a nice result, a medal would be extra. In lead we had much higher goals, but unfortunately it didn't work out for the girls. It's been a long time since we stayed without a final in lead for the girls. The semi-final completely failed for us, so many mistakes happened, perhaps they were a bit indecisive at the start of the route, which showed at the end in the last part, where every move counted for qualification to the final. With the guys besides Luka we hoped for another finalist, but it didn't happen. But Luka climbed both the final and semi-final excellently and secured us this medal that we really wanted. Far from it being taken for granted, and therefore it's so much sweeter - Luka really deserved it, I think we all deserved it and that's why we're very happy. The second medal was in combined, Mia Krampl fully deserved it. She really worked hard for combined for the Olympics, where it didn't go best for her, so we're glad she secured it at the championships and rewarded all the effort she put into preparations for the Olympics," drew the line the selector of the Slovenian sport climbing national team Gorazd Hren, whose right-hand men are coaches Luka Fonda and Domen Švab.



Silver medalist Luka Potočar climbed the first men's medal from world championships in lead for Slovenia, with Krampl's silver in combined, in 2021 in Moscow they added the 19th and 20th award from World Championships to the collection of medals of the Slovenian sport climbing national team. Martina Čufar in 2001 in lead became the first Slovenian with the world champion title. Mina Markovič was third in combined in 2009, 2011 and 2014, in 2014 also world runner-up in lead and in 2016 in Paris third in this discipline. Maja Vidmar achieved bronze in lead in 2007 and 2009, in men's competition the highest reach was Jernej Kruder with second place in bouldering in 2014 in Munich. Janja Garnbret in 2016 in Paris became world champion in lead, in 2018 in Innsbruck won silver in the same discipline and became world champion in boulders and Olympic combined, in Innsbruck Gregor Vezonik also climbed boulder bronze. In 2019 Garnbret in Hachioji wrote history with gold medals both in bouldering and lead climbing as well as in combined, Mia Krampl celebrated silver in lead.