4th straight win for smiling Natalia Grossman

Hannah Meul from Germany made the competition of her life and put extreme pressure on Natalia Grossman, by doing all problems in just six attempts. After Natalia fell one time on the last boulder, the American needed to send it on the next try, to win, which she did. Zhilu Luo from China got the bronze and amazingly this was her first-ever World Cup. The 16-year-old had actually never done a competition outside China but last year she won the Chinese Championship. Complete results (c) Lena Drapella/IFSC

Natalia comments to IFSC: “I’m really grateful and excited for more. I feel like at least during the qualification and semi-final rounds, I had the most fun I’ve had in a really long time. It felt really good to compete without pressure again, because in Salt Lake I had a lot of pressure. Hannah definitely kept me on my toes the whole final round so that was kind of fun dealing with the pressure, but I’m glad I was able to keep it together,” said Grossman following her win. “I’ve been focusing mainly on boulders this year, but I’m very excited to get the opportunity to compete in Lead because I love Lead climbing. We’ll see how it goes!” she added when questioned about the upcoming IFSC Lead World Cup season.

Hannah, who previously has been #7 and #13 in the Boulder WC in 2022, comments to 8a: "It was amazing but I had the feeling that it is my time to shine. I was confident during all rounds. I got this feeling the day before the competition and I can not explain why I got it but it sure was a great feeling. It is a dream come through :)”

Before the final, 8a talked to the German Head coach, Ingo Filzwieser, and congratulated him for the great results also for having four guys in the male final. Asking him about the reason for the great progress of the German climbers he hesitated and gave it a long thought. "I think most important is the mindset. Everyone is stronger mentally and somehow myself and they all think they can make finals. We have a great team and train together at the same time as Hannah for example is doing most of her training with her personal coach in Cologn. You know, everyone is individual and different approaches are necessary at the same time we often meet and train together. I am not surprised that Hannah made it to the final and she can send all problems in the final."

It should be mentioned that the route setting was perfectly creating a big drama. On the second move on the first boulder, we did see six different solutions with Hannah's figure-four as the most spectacular. Everyone says that it has been a great organized competition. The live commentators did together with the DJ, the athletes, the route setters and some 1 700 spectators an event to remember with a smile similar to Natalia's and Hannah's.