Grupper and Garnbret winners in Briancon

Jesse Grupper got his first World Cup victory in after having won each round in Briancon. Previously in 2022, the American has been #3, #2, #35 (stepped outside the wall), #4 (in the World Games) and he is #2 in the overall ranking. This is of course a big surprise but on the other hand, he actually finished the 2019 season being #7 and #5. IFSC Insta interview and her is what he said in the live-streaming.

“I’m still pretty much in shock and super psyched! I feel like that was probably one of the worst climbed routes of my life in some ways, but also I was just so psyched to keep fighting through each move and it felt so good to pull it off. It was very intense and I was very nervous about this move, but I was just like ‘you just have to get this next hold and it will get better, you just have to go one more move’. I think just having that mentality paid off in the end.”

Runner-up was Taisei Homma from Japan, who leads the WC after having been #9, #1 and #2 in the first three events in 2022. Alex Megos from Germany got the bronze on countback against both Tasei and Yannick Flohé. Complete results
(c) Lena Drapella/IFSC

Janja Garnbret won her seventh consecutive Lead World Cup and in total, she has now won 24 WCs and WCHs. Out of the 42 such events the Slovenian has participated in, she has 37 times (88 %) made the podium. “I was really excited, at observation the route looked super cool and I really enjoyed climbing. Some sequences seemed tricky at observation, but then it was all okay – climbable and super nice.”

Runner-up was Chaehyun Seo from Korea just one hold after Janja and then Natalia Grossman got the bronze ahead of Brooke Raboutou, on countback. Complete results