Welcome to Behind the Wall, your weekly update on the climbing competition world.
This week, I look back at the World Cup in Wujiang from last weekend (there are spoilers). I then look forward to the next one in Bali, Indonesia, which starts on Friday.
As usual, I recap the latest news and my favourite media from the last week. I also recap where to buy tickets for upcoming international competitions and what you can watch this weekend.
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Wujiang Review: History was made again
After Keqiao, we went to Wujiang, China, for the second World Cup of the year. This time it was the turn of the Lead and Speed climbers.
The competition started out with a string of tops in Lead qualification. Ten men topped both qualification routes and went into the semi-final in first place. There were seven tops in the women's qualification round. Erin McNeice, Chaehyun Seo, and Annie Sanders were all tied in first place going into the semi-final.
In the semi-final, the top three women topped the route, which finished with a tricky slabby section after a mantle. Laura Rogora joined them in topping the route, clipping from the penultimate hold.
On the men's side, the route separated everyone except Alberto Ginés López and Sorato Anraku. Both fell jumping for the final hold. Filip Schenk came out first and set an early high point, also falling while jumping to the final hold. Neo Suzuki and Satone Yoshida fell two holds earlier. Wujiang was Suzuki's first final ever in a World Cup.
The Women's Lead Final made history
Erin McNeice and Chaehyun Seo both fell on the same hold at the exact same time in the final. As they were tied going into the final, they both received gold medals.
McNeice's World Cup win is the first ever by a senior British woman. She also joins Shauna Coxsey as the only other British woman to have won a World Cup gold medal in any discipline.
Seo's win was her first since her debut season in 2019. Back then, she won in Chamonix, Briançon, Kranj, and Xiamen to claim the season title. She beat Janja Garnbret four times that season.
This competition marks the seventh time athletes have shared gold medals in climbing history.
The first instance happened at the Lead World Cup in Marbella, Spain, in 2005, where Alexandre Chabot and Flavio Crespi both won gold medals. This is the only time men have shared a gold medal in a World Cup.
In 2009, Akiyo Noguchi and Anna Stöhr shared the Boulder World Cup gold medal in Hall, Austria. They both flashed every problem in the final, including the extra super final boulder. Noguchi and Stöhr were tied in 6th going into the final, so count-back to earlier rounds could not separate them.
The next shared medals were in 2011, at the Chamonix, Changzhi, and Barcelona World Cups. There were four winners in Chamonix, two in Changzhi, and three in Barcelona.
The only other time athletes shared gold medals in a Lead World Cup was in 2018. That year, in Wujiang, Janja Garnbret and Jain Kim both took home the gold after the final was cancelled due to heavy rain.
In 2011, the IFSC rules allowed competition organisers to hold super finals to separate athletes, but many chose not to. In 2012 the IFSC introduced a new rule to split tied athletes using time in the final. While using a super final to split athletes may sound like a great idea, they have only been used sparingly. Running a superfinal required the organisers to either use the same route, which doesn't make sense if everyone topped it, or get the routesetters to create a new one.
Angela Eiter beat Muriel Sarkany in a superfinal after both topped every route at the 2007 World Championship in Avilés, Spain. The routesetters altered the men's route to create the superfinal route.
In 2009, another superfinal took place in Puurs, Belgium. Johanna Ernst, Jain Kim, and Maja Stremfelj all topped every route in the competition. Again, they used an altered version of the men's route. Johanna Ernst finished highest in the superfinal. The superfinal was filmed by German coach Udo Neumann, letting us see how Ernst compared to some of the male finalists.
Anraku dominated, and a belaying issue caused a rare re-climb
Sorato Anraku dominated the men's competition, finishing first in every round. He was the only athlete to top the final lead route.
There was a controversy with the belaying in the men's final. Just below the headwall, halfway up the route, athletes needed to move from right to left. This included a short down climb in the route. When Japanese athlete Neo Suzuki was climbing, the belayer kept the rope tight. This helped him stay on the wall when he slipped during this section. After resting for 20 minutes in isolation, he climbed the route again. Suzuki reached a high enough point to win the silver medal in his first World Cup final.
Alberto Ginés López finished third, winning his fourth World Cup medal and his first since Koper in 2023.
No world records, but speed competitions keeps getting faster
Before Wujiang, everyone was wondering if the World Records from the Paris 2024 Olympics would be broken. Sam Watson posted his Instagram about when he would set a new World Record after posting a sub-4.7 second run.
Both World Cup records still stand after Wujiang. Watson was within 0.02 seconds and Katibin within 0.01 seconds. No one was close to Aleksandra Miroslaw's women's world record of 6.06 seconds - the fastest time was 6.32 seconds in the competition.
Despite the lack of World Record times, and even sub-5 second times on the men's side, Wujiang was the fastest competition ever. Men needed to run under 5.16 seconds to qualify for the final. The Olympic champion Veddriq Leonardo missed out on the final by 0.03 seconds. The women had to run under 7.11 seconds, the fastest time ever needed to qualify for the final.
Five women ran under 6.4 seconds in the competition and none of them was the World Record holder Miroslaw. In Wujiang it felt like the rest of the field had caught up with Miroslaw. Over the last 3 years, Miroslaw's slowest time in a competition was often faster than everyone else's fastest times.
Jimin Jeong ran the fastest time in qualification in 6.36 seconds, smashing her previous personal best. She lost to Shaoqin Zhang in the final. This is Zhang's second World Cup win after winning in Chamonix last year. Olympic silver medalists Lijuan Deng beat Emma Hunt in the race for the bronze medal. Hunt had beaten Miroslaw in the quarter-final by 0.01 seconds in a scrappy race.
The Chinese men's team was full of new faces. The only Chinese World Cup winner competing was Jianguo Long. Long would dominate the competition, running under 4.9 seconds three times and setting a new PB of 4.81. Peng Wu did not compete as he is recovering from a finger injury.
Long beat 20-year-old Ukrainian Hryhorii Ilchyshyn in the final race. Ilchyshyn finished in 4.98 seconds in his final run – his first sub-5 run in a World Cup competition. Wujiang was his first World Cup medal in his fourth World Cup.
Watson lost to Kiromal Katibin in the small final for the bronze medal. Katibin was within a whisker of the World Record, finishing in 4.75 seconds. The medal is Katibin's 10th World Cup medal.
Bali Preview
We finish the Asian leg of the World Cup circuit in Bali, Indonesia, this weekend. The competition starts on Friday and most of the athletes from Wujiang will be there. There are 222 athletes competing in Bali, 114 Lead and 108 Speed athletes. Thirty-three Olympians are attending, 16 in Speed and 17 in Lead.
The event is being held on Peninsula Island in the Nusa Dua area of Bali, right next to Nusa Dua beach. The event is supported by Bali's local government to promote sports tourism. Marco Scolaris, the President of the IFSC, personally requested Bali as the host for a World Cup in Indonesia.
Who will be in Bali?
Brooke Raboutou and Jessica Pilz are both registered, but neither will be competing. Raboutou is taking time off from competitions this year. Pilz is recovering from a finger injury. Other noticeable absences include Olympians Rajiah Sallsabillah and Yuetong Zhang.
Ai Mori is registered to compete, though. The Japanese Team are choosy about competitors because of the limited quota. So, we hope her attendance will be confirmed. This happens on Friday morning before the Lead qualification in the afternoon.
31 Indonesian athletes are competing, 19 in Speed and 12 in Lead. Two of the Indonesian athletes are from Bali: Desak Made Rita Kusuma Dewi and Kadek Adiasih. We will also see World Cup medalist Hannah Meul compete for the first time since Innsbruck last year.
All the podium winners from Wujiang are registered. So, the overall series will start to take shape. It's been great to see Euroholds and the IFSC posting about the overall series rankings. It is starting to feel like the overall matters again.
Weather: Hot across the weekend with highs of 31ºC (87.8ºF). There is a small chance of rain on Sunday. There is usually a light breeze coming from the sea.
Fun Fact: Bali's marine biodiversity is massive. There are over 3,000 fish species in the surrounding waters: twice as many as the Great Barrier Reef.
Where to Watch: As usual, you can watch in Europe and the UK on Eurosport, Discovery+ or Max, depending on your country. You can watch in Brazil on Globo, in Mexico on TV Azteca, and elsewhere on the IFSC YouTube channel.
Schedule: All times are local times (UTC+8).
Friday, 2nd May
- 14:00 – 19:00 Lead Qualification
Saturday, 3rd May
- 11:00 – 13:00 Speed Qualifications
- 15:00 – 16:00 Speed Final
Sunday, 4th May
- 10:00 – 12:30 Lead Semi-Final
- 20:30 Lead Final
News
Here is the latest news from the last week:
- Wujiang World Cup Results
- Lead
- Women:
1. Erin McNeice (UK), 1. Chaehyun Seo (South Korea), 3. Annie Sanders (USA).
- Women:
- Lead
- Men:
1. Sorato Anraku (Japan), 2. Neo Suzuki (Japan), 3. Albero Ginés López (Spain) - Speed:
- Women:
1. Shaoqin Zhang (China), 2. Jimin Jeong (South Korea), 3. Lijuan Deng (China) - Men:
1. Jianguo Long (China), 2. Hryhorii Ilchyshyn (Ukraine), 3. Kiromal Katibin (Indonesia)
- Women:
- Brooke Raboutou posted on Instagram that she won't be attending many World Cups this year. She won't be competing at any Boulder World Cups and may compete in a few Lead World Cups later in the year.
- Jessica Pilz announced on Instagram that she has got a finger injury. She is looking to return at the Innsbruck World Cup.
Media Recommendations
Jinni Xia
Shauna Coxsey gave a candid interview on the That's Not Real Climbing Podcast. They talk about the role of the athlete commission and what she aims to achieve as President. She shared her experiences with disordered eating early in her career. She explained how she balances being a professional athlete and a mother. She also talked about her journey from competition climbing to rock climbing.
IFSC commentator Matt Groom's personal vlog is back. His first vlog shares his experiences at the first Chinese World Cup in Keqiao and filming for the World Climbing Club in Shanghai.
Sam MacIlwaine
Sam MacIlwaine talked to Sara Al Qunaibet about her recovery from a terrible belaying accident last year.
Ben Moon and Sam Prior, co-host of the Careless Talk Podcast, test the best and worst benchmarks on the new 2024 Moonboard hold set. Which benchmarks will survive the video?
Watch Erin McNeice and Chaehyun Seo's final ascents side by side.
Competition Tickets
With the season approaching, I’ve gone hunting to find out where and when tickets will be available.
- 2nd–4th May, Bali IFSC Lead & Speed World Cup. The competition will be free to attend.
- 16th–18th May, Curitiba IFSC Boulder World Cup. Ticket information still to be announced.
- 22nd–25th May, Salt Lake City IFSC Boulder World Cup and IFSC Paraclimbing World Cup. Tickets are available through Eventbrite.
- 31st May–1st June, Denver IFSC Speed World Cup. Tickets will be released around 2nd April through USA Climbing.
- 5th – 8th June, Prague IFSC Boulder World Cup. Tickets are still on sale.
- 12th–15th June, Bern IFSC Boulder World Cup. Tickets are still on sale.
- 23rd–29th June, Innsbruck IFSC Boulder and Lead World Cup & IFSC Paraclimbing World Cup. Tickets go on sale in April and June:
- 7th April: World Cup Passes for the whole event [Sold out]
- 28th April: Single Day Tickets - early phase.
- 16th June: Single Day Tickets - late phase.
- 5th–6th July, Krakow IFSC Speed World Cup. This event is free of charge, and no tickets are required for entry.
- 11th–13th July, Chamonix IFSC Lead and Speed World Cup. This event is free of charge, and no tickets are required for entry.
- 17th–19th July, Madrid IFSC Lead World Cup. This event is free of charge. It is not yet known if tickets are required for entry.
- 28th July–3rd August, IFSC Youth World Championships in Helsinki. Tickets are for:
- 4th–6th September, Koper IFSC Lead World Cup. Tickets will be made available here.
- 19th–28th September, Seoul IFSC World Championships. Tickets will be needed for the following (All indoor events):
- Paraclimbing Finals
- Speed Qualification & Finals - Women and Men
- Lead Semi-finals & Finals - Women and Men
- Boulder Semi-Finals & Finals - Women and Men.
All other events are free of charge. Access to the venue is limited. Entry is restricted to first-come, first-served.
- 23rd–26th October, Laval IFSC Paraclimbing World Cup. Ticket information has not been announced yet.
What to Watch
The 2025 IFSC Climbing World Cup circuit continues in Bali, Indonesia, this weekend.
There is also the Boulder European Cup in Brussels, Belgium. All three rounds of the European Cup will be streamed live on the IFSC Europe YouTube channel.
All times are local times (UTC+2).
Saturday, 3rd May
Sunday, 4th May
