The first 2025 IFSC Boulder World Cup final line-up is set as eight, yes eight, women will fight it out for the first podium of the 2025 season.

Leading the way in Keqiao, China is France’s Oriane Bertone. Sporting a new full length right leg tattoo, the French climber was the only semi-finalist to top three of the four boulders.

Bertone’s score of 84.7pts – a news scoring system from previous years – means progressing through into the final in first position and climbing last in the final. The final will also see eight climbers for the first time as opposed to the six we are used to seeing contest a final.

Australia’s Oce Mackenzie picked up her first World Cup medal last year in Prague, and it looks like she has been working hard in the off season to keep that going moving into the final in second place with 69.5pts.

Speaking about her semi-final performance the Aussie climber said: “I think the first two boulders were very physical and skin intensive which was quite a hard start to the round, but for me the coordination went quite quickly, and so did the slab.”

On picking her favourite boulder she said: “Maybe a can’t choose between the coordination and slab as coordination is my favourite style, but I am really happy with my progress on slab.”

And for the finals: “I’m very excited. My skin is not the best so that is a worry, but I’m excited to try the boulders.”

USA’s Annie Sanders won the final event of 2024, and she is on course for more silverware making the final in third place with 69.3pts. The American has some big shoes to fill with Brooke Raboutou taking a break and Natalia Grossman injured, but Sanders is making her own path and showing her own climbing skills. She was the only climber in the semi-final to top boulder one.

Japan always shows up to an IFSC World Cup, and 2025 looks no different. They have three finalists with Sekikawa Melody, Nonaka Miho and Nakamura Mao all making the top eight for a final place.

Sekikawa scored 69.3pts for fourth. Nonaka, who currently is the only climber in the final with multiple golds, scored 54.7pts for fifth. Nakamura scored 45.0pts for sixth.

In seventh place was Great Britain’s Erin Mcneice who had a bit of a breakout year in 2024 and now has higher standards for herself and her climbing: “I’m not happy with my semi, but I am happy that it’s enough to get me into the final. The boulders were really hard and very droppable, so it made for a nerve wracking, but fun, semi-final.”

In the final she is, and now she can try and regain the standards she wants, but the young Brit is not putting too much pressure on herself to do so: “I just want to enjoy the final, soak in the experience and climb better.”

With Mcneice on 44.9pts, the last climber to make the final is the ever-popular South Korean Seo Chaehyun. She makes the final with 39.4pts.

While the eight prepare for the final, some can leave the competition at the semi-final stage happy after their first appearance in the round.

Austria’s Lea Kempf, Australia’s Maya Stasiuk, Slovenia’s Sara Copar and Great Britain’s Zoe Peetermans all made the Boulder semi-final for the first time.

Full results can be found here

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