Innsbruck World Cup Lead Report and Analysis

While Janja Garnbret may have had a rusty start to the boulder qualification round, there wasn't any rust left by the time she started in Lead. She was the last athlete to climb in the qualification round, and she topped both qualification routes. The semi-final and final routes were harder, with neither being topped by anyone.

The final route was particularly difficult, with most athletes falling in an orange and black section between holds 30 and 33, about 60-70% up the route. No one fell on the low-down laché move. Lučka Rakovec did slip off the jump into the hold athletes would laché off. Garnbret was the only one to make it onto the yellow and black headwall section, falling 8 holds higher than second place Laura Rogora.

Janja said after the final,

The final route was amazing. In observation, it looked hard. Harder than semis and harder than qualis. And we all know I like that. We all know that the public loves it and competitors as well, because it allows us to fight, to show our best, to show what we train for. And I actually really, really enjoyed it.

“It was an easy start. Then there was like this swing move where I hesitated a little bit. And then when I did that move, I said to myself, ‘now it's your time. Just climb. Just put on a good fight, for yourself, for the public’ and at the point where I fell, I just didn't have energy anymore.'

The win was Janja's 30th Lead World Cup gold medal. She is now level with Jain Kim in the all-time list of gold medal winners. Janja has a chance to overtake Jain at her home World Cup in Koper, Slovenia, later this year. Angela Eiter (Austria) is 3rd with 25 golds, and Mina Markovic (Slovenia) and Muriel Sarkany (Belgium) are joint 4th with 20. They all competed through a time when there were sometimes up to 10 Lead World Cups in a season in the early 2010s.

Laura Rogora won her 6th World Cup medal. She last won a medal in Briançon last year. She managed to hold 33 without clipping the previous clip draw. Some of the coaches felt that she could not clip from hold 33, but the head routesetter believed it was possible. She was not awarded the plus for moving towards hold 34 as that would be too far.

Erin McNeice finished 3rd, winning her 3rd Lead World Cup medal. It is her 5th World Cup medal this year. She was the closest of all the athletes to slip off the laché move low down. She tried to jump sideways to the hold instead of lachéing across.

Lučka Rakovec was in her first final after her thyroid cancer had gone into remission, and she was overjoyed at reaching it. The final was also Heloïse Doumont's first final in her 31st Lead World Cup.

Results

1. Janja Garnbret – 41
2. Laura Rogora – 33
3. Erin McNeice – 32+
4. Rosa Rekar – 31+
5. Annie Sanders – 30
6. Chaehyun Seo – 30
7. Heloïse Doumont – 28+
8. Lucka Rakovec – 19+

Erin's bronze medal keeps her in first place in the Lead World Cup series with 2,592 points, 390 points ahead of Chaehyun Seo. No British woman has won the Lead World Cup series. Chaehyun Seo is second with 2,202 points, and Laura Rogora's second place keeps her in third with 2,025 points. Rosa Rekar's consistent finals move her into fourth with 1,350 points.

2025 Women's Lead World Cup Series Top 10

Neo Suzuki wins his first gold medal in Lead

Neo Suzuki topped three of the four routes in the competition to win his first World Cup gold medal. He was the only athlete to top the semi-final route and one of the qualification routes. He is the 12th Japanese man to win a gold medal in Lead.

“I’m very happy with my first gold medal,” said Suzuki. “I believe the route was a bit easy, but I found it difficult in the middle section, that's when I felt tired. Innsbruck is an awesome venue, there were so many people supporting me. My season is going very well, I would like to win the overall title.”

Neo finished 2nd at the Youth World Championship in Lead back in 2023 and went to all the World Cups that year. His highest place was 10th in 2023. He didn't compete at any World Cups in 2024 after not qualifying for the Japanese national team. He won his first World Cup medal, a silver medal, in Wujiang this year after having to re-climb the route following a belaying technical incident.

Toby Roberts continued his Innsbruck comeback with another medal; this time, a silver one. The medal is his seventh Lead World Cup medal. The boulder rounds had clearly had an effect as he had to grind out the top of the lead route, clipping the final quickdraw with seconds to spare.

Albert Ginés López won the bronze medal, his 6th World Cup medal. He has finished 3rd in every Lead World Cup this year.

There were five tops in the final, the second highest ever for men. Yannick Flohé came out first and topped with over two minutes to spare, yet finished fifth. Satone Yoshida also topped, but finished fourth. Time was not needed to decide the podium because every athlete was separated by count-back to the semi-final.

The highest number of tops in a men's Lead World Cup was in Inzai, 2012, when seven athletes topped the Lead route and the eighth athlete, Romain Desgranges, fell going for the top hold. Sean McColl, who was the first athlete to top the route, said on air, “I will obviously be a little disappointed if I come 7th and there are 7 tops.”

Results

1. Neo Suzuki – Top
2. Toby Roberts – Top
3. Alberto Ginés López – Top
4. Satone Yoshida – Top
5. Yannick Flohé – Top
6. Max Bertone – 40
7. Dohyun Lee – 38+
8. Jesse Grupper – 33

Neo's win, along with his silver medal in Wujiang, means he leads the World Cup series with 2300 points. Satone Yoshida is second with 2220 points after winning in Bali and finishing 4th in Wujiang and Innsbruck. Alberto's three 3rd place finishes keep him in 3rd with 2070 points. Sorato Anraku failed to reach the final in Innsbruck after his heel slipped in the semi-final. He drops to 4th in the series with 1600 points.

2025 Men's Lead World Cup Series Top 10

The next Lead World Cup of the series will be held in Chamonix, France, on the 11th of July.