The Slovenian Janja Garnbret once again confirms her absolute dominance in sport climbing for women. She wins the gold medal in sport climbing at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Two Japanese women, Miho Nonaka and Akiyo Noguchi, follow in second and third place. Jessica Pilz falls to 2th place shortly before the end of the competition.
In a separate article we have recorded the entire competition step by step for you. Here is the Live ticker.
Today's Olympic final for women started without any major surprises, at least as far as the ranking is concerned. The two speed climbing specialists, Aleksandra Miroslaw and Anouck Jaubert, took ranks 1 and 2. They were followed by the two Japanese Miho Nonaka and Akiyo Noguchi. Today was a big day for the world of speed climbing: Aleksandra Miroslaw set a new world record for women in the last run: the best time is now 6.84 seconds.
Aleksandra Miroslaw sets a new world record in speed climbing in the last run.
The gold medal favorite Janja Garnbret had to start the next discipline with fifth place and thus with the multiplication factor 5. But this did not really burden her in the end result, as it later turned out.
Confident bouldering victory
The bouldering problems that the route setters prepared for the women turned out to be too tough - or did they? Seven of the eight finalists did not make a single top. But - there is still someone missing. Right, Janja Garnbret. In the usual manner, she showed that it is possible after all. The Slovenian topped two final boulders, only on the last boulder, a brutally strong problem, and even the crown favorite failed.
The route setters were not that wrong, because the bouldering problems clearly had to be solved. Unfortunately just from one person. The route planners were repeatedly faced with a major problem: if they screw the boulders in such a way that a larger number of finalists can climb them, Janja simply walks up. Today, however, she too had to make an effort.
Japanese women defied Janja Garnbret.
Second best in the bouldering discipline was the American Brooke Raboutou, who smoothed out her high multiplication factor of 7 from the speed discipline. The two Japanese women followed Raboutou again. So the two of them were still serious opponents of Janja, because they finished better in the speed discipline.
Gold is not yet on the safe side
At the beginning of the lead discipline, the distribution of points between Garnbret, Nonaka and Noguchi was 5, 9 and 16 points. So the three were close together. After her run in lead climbing, Janja Garnbret was in first place in the overall ranking. The gold medal was practically in front of her nose.
Despite Janja Garnbret's sovereign run in lead climbing, the gold medal was not yet guaranteed.
But Nonaka, Pilz and Seo could still push them from the top step of the podium. Of the three, only Nonaka would have had a chance at the gold medal, the other two would only have brought Garnbret out of the gold medal.
In order for this rather improbable situation to have occurred, all three would have had to climb higher than Garnbret, then in a special order. So actually an impossibility. And so it was. Miho Nonaka was kicked out at handle 21, Jessica Pilz solid to just under the thread. The Korean Chaehyun Seo was even closer to Garnbret, who fell just two handles below the Slovenian. Summa Summarum: Janja Garnbret was already Olympic Champion after her run and the early exit from Nonaka!
Final ranking - sport climbing women
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Credits: Cover picture ARD