Adam Ondra, who got the bronze yesterday in Boulder, won the gold in an exciting Lead final winning over Luka Potocar on countback. Interestingly, Adam reached 37+ in 3.01 min meanwhile Luka was more than a minute slower.

It was 45 holds to the top meaning both Adam and Luka would have gotten 60 points, if this would have been the Combined event.

Ondra commented to IFSC: “My son Hugo was born three months ago,” Ondra said after his victory. “Right before climbing in the final, I was thinking about my son and my wife, and I think it gave me like the ultimate power boost just before I started.”

Asked if he was confident of winning gold heading into the final, Ondra laughed and shook his head. “After two days of competition [Boulder and Lead], I still hadn’t recovered because I was destroyed, I was broken,” he said. “The semi-final was a true massacre. I just felt every muscle in my body was aching. But in the final, I saw a route I really liked and I just went for it with no fear. And after that I didn’t make any mistakes, so I am very, very happy.”

Janja Garnbret was put under pressure as she could not do the first boulder. Then on #2, everything was back on track again as Janja flashed and just only one other girl could make the zone.
Garnbret: ”I started off pretty badly with the first boulder, not doing it, but I didn't panic. I just said to myself, ‘look, you have three boulders in front of you, anything can happen' and I continued to have fun.”
If this would have been in the Combined event, possibly, also the runner-up, Hannah Meul would have gotten 56 points. Oriane Bertone was third using for more attempts than Hanna.

Nicolai Uznik won by doing two boulders in six attempts out of which one flash. This was just one attempt less than Sam Avezou. In the live streaming they give 25 points for the top and then they deduct 0.1 point per try after the flash attempt. On the first boulder, nobody reached the zone and on the last one, only Mejdi Schalck got the zone.

“That's one of the coolest competitions I've ever competed in. Especially with such a big and awesome crowd, you just want to deliver a show. That's what I tried to do because after the first boulder I felt I couldn't really climb anymore. So, I was thinking okay let's enjoy this and at least put on a good show. Try to give all I have and it turned out to be pretty good.”

Janja Garnbret climbed with ease passing Jessica Pilz high point. The biggest drama was actually Janja’s big whipper partly upside down, having done a big diagonal dyno to the top jug but she could not hold the swing.

“The European Championships is probably one of the hardest to win because you are expected to win it. If you can win World Cups, then people think that you should also win the European Championships. That's how it is.

It was definitely one of the hardest mentally to win. That's why I'm even happier with my performance and my mentality throughout all competition.”

Adam Ondra won a very hard semi final topping two just two boulders. On the last two problems he did not reach the zone. Only 8 out of the 20 participants topped one boulder.

Janja Garnbret easily passed Manon Hily's high point and then fought hard making ten more moves falling two moves from the top. Third was Mia Krampl falling one move below Manon but seven moves ahead of Jessica Pilz #4. Complete results

Jenya Kazbekova was #7 which is sensational as she got food poisoning yesterday. She was vomiting and got a fever and spent four hours waiting for medication in the hospital.

Yannis Gautier, who was #10 in an Euro Youth Cup in May, reports on Insta that he has done La moustache qui fâche (9a+) in Entraygues. It was put up by Enzo Oddo in 2011 and it has been repeated five times.
"I started trying this route two years ago but I was really far from the sending. It took me six sessions to pass the first crux, which is definitely not the hardest part of the route. Day after day it becomes more like a personal achievement to try hard on this route and I wanted to prove to myself I'm able to climb something hard. Working this route was so fun and I really liked the process because the effort is pretty short (12 hard moves) and fun to climb. It does not make you weaker to climb a lot on in. I also tried it with Nao Monchois this summer and it was very inspiring. The send try was really unexpected because I was not really strong I just had a great fight and it worked."

What is your next plan?
The next plan is to try several 9a's and principally to train a lot next year to increase my level. I will also do a lot of outdoor bouldering next year and I want to do maybe my first 8B+ or at least a lot of king lines in Switzerland and Fontainebleau.

Alex Megos and Adam Ondra got highest on the first route and were also among the six guys topping the second qualification route. France, Great Britain, Belgium, and Italy got three through to the semifinal. Complete male Lead result.

In the Boulder female qualification, Janja Garnbret and Cloe Caulier won their respective group. Slovenia, who dominated the Lead qually yesterday, had three girls in the Top-11. Also, France and Italy had three girls making the Top-20 semifinal. In one of the groups, only 1 Top 4 zones was good enough for being #13. Complete female Boulder results.

William Bosi, who the last year has done 11 8C's, has made the FA of Honey Badger 8C+ in Peak District. He calls it his hardest ever and it includes 22 moves before doing a very scary top-out, where a big foothold popped. The 23-year-old is #1 in the 8a ranking game. Last year he was #11 in the Lead World Championship but in 2022 he did choose to take a break from the competition circuit before going for the Olympics qualifications in 2023.

Gianluca Vighetti sent TCT last year being the first 12-year-old to reach 9a. Stefano Ghisolfi made the FA in 2014, commenting. "I want to dedicate this route to Tito Traversa (that's why I called TCT), because I want everybody will remember him forever."