A host of tops across both the men and women makes sure the 2025 Lead season starts with excitement
Lead climbing returned with the first IFSC World Cup of the 2025 season in Wujiang, China, and the climbers put on a show with double-tops across the men and women’s competitions.
USA’s Annie Sanders took home the first World Cup gold of the year for the women in the Boulder discipline last week, and moving Chinese cities and disciplines hasn’t affected the young climber as two tops in qualification means she heads the overall standings.
South Korea’s Seo Chaehyun and Great Britain’s Erin McNeice also sit atop the leaderboard matching the two top score.
A strong outing for Australia’s Oce Mackenzie put her into the semi-final in fourth, although she fell agonisingly short of a qualification route top in both routes.
The only other climber in the women’s field to top was Italy’s Laura Rogora who had to make up for a low scoring route A climb. She moved through qualification in fifth.
Rogora fell at hold 25+ on route A, a place that caught a lot of the field out. One of those to be caught out by a jump move was Austria’s Flora Oblasser: “I started the first route which had a pretty hard jump in the middle, and I fell there.
“I thought I was going to stick it because I’ve never fallen on a jump before and I was pretty confident, but I did fall. That put a lot of pressure on the second route as I knew I had to get far to even make it to the semi-final.”
Just like Rogora, Oblasser made up for the low fall with a good second climb and moved into the semi-final in 16th, despite some nerves to make up for her mistake: “The second route I gave everything I had and I was happy with how I managed to deal with the pressure.”
The Slovenian team had five women progress into the semi-final with Sara Copar in tenth the highest of the Lead squad that includes two-time Olympian Mia Krampl and current Youth World Champion’s Rosa Rekar and Jennifer Buckley.
Talking after her climbs Copar said: “I’m satisfied. I was super nervous for this round as it’s the first of the season and I knew I was in good shape, but I just had to show it. I wasn’t as nervous on the wall as I was before climbing so it went pretty well.”
Copar is hoping there is more to come, and also hoping for some more great route setting: “I’m super excited for the semi-final. It’s been a few years since I was here. I was here [in Wujiang] two years ago and I really liked the semi-final route, so I’m hoping this year is as fun as last time.”
There is home nation interest in the semi-final with Zhang Yuetong who moved into the semi-final in eighth place.
Now down to 24 semi-final places from previous years 26 in this season’s new rule changes, France’s Hélène Janicot, Japan’s Oda Natsumi and Indonesia’s Sukma Lintang Cahyani all occupied the joint 22nd spot to make it through.
Full women’s Lead results can be found here
The men’s competition saw nine climbers top both routes for a share of first position, a list that includes some big names.
Olympic champions Toby Roberts of Great Britain and Spain’s Alberto Ginés López both qualified in first alongside Japan’s Anraku Sorato, Anraku was one of three Japanese climbers with two tops with Suzuki Neo and Yoshida Satone the others.
Back on the Lead World Cup wall, Roberts said: “Qualification went really well, I managed to get two tops. I got quite pumped, it definitely feels like I haven’t been on a rope for a while, but I know my Lead shape is good, and this feels like a good activation for the semi-final tomorrow. I’m really excited to see what I can do.”
In his first Lead World Cup since his Olympic gold and the news LA28 would get medals for each discipline, Roberts said: “I’ve recently been in Japan a lot to try and improve my Boulder, I really want to improve that. With LA [Olympic Games] now being Lead and Boulder I know it’s going to take a lot of training to get in shape for both because I want to continue in both. It’s going to be tough but I’m excited for the challenge.”
Other climbers at the top of the leaderboard are Slovenia’s Luka Potocar, Belgium’s Hannes Van Duysen and French duo Sam Avezou and Max Bertone.
Bertone had some strong showings in his first senior year last year making a few Lead finals, but he hadn’t ticked off a goal of his, until now: “I feel very happy, but I feel very surprised. I thought before qualification I would never top a route and now I have done two in a row. It’s pretty crazy and I am happy and confident for what’s next.”
Maybe confident, the young Frenchman is also quite realistic in his climbing: “I expect the semi-final to be way harder because tops in semi-finals are more rare. I’m looking forward to it and I’m very excited for it.”
Max is of course Olympian and World Cup winner Oriane’s brother, so is there any rivalry, or is it all love in the Bertone family?
“My sister doesn’t like the competition between us. I like it though. When we were younger, she was always beating me, but now I train to be better than her, and she doesn’t like that,” Max says jokingly with a cheeky laugh and smile, knowing he will be in trouble with his big sister later.
For now though, Bertone will have to focus on a semi-final where he will take on the likes of Switzerland’s Sascha Lehmann and USA’s Jesse Grupper who also made it through qualification with a top on their score cards.
The men also have a solitary climber from the home nation with Pan Yufei making it through in joint 11thalongside Japan’s Shimizu Hiroto and Italy’s Giorgio Tomatis.
Tomatis’ teammate Filip Schenk was the climber to hold the 24th and last semi-final spot.
Full men’s Lead results can be found here
News and updates about all IFSC events will be available on the IFSC website, and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.
