The second competition day at the IFSC World Cup Briançon 2024 featured the two Lead semi-final rounds that selected the eight men and eight women competing in tomorrow’s finals.

Four Japanese climbers took the first four positions at the end of the men’s semi-final, with Omata Shion, Yoshida Satone, and Murashita Zento securing the top of the route, and Tanaka Shuta closing just a few before with 48+.

The Japanese contingent participating in the battle for the medals will also include Ishizu Mototaka and Imaizumi Yuta – respectively sixth and seventh in the ranking.

The only two non-Japanese athletes making it into the top eight were 17-year-old Max Bertone of France, and 29-year-old Sebastian Halenke of Germany. The French talent placed fifth with 47, while Halenke scored 45 and finished in eighth position.

Bertone said: “I’m so happy! This was probably one of my biggest goals this year. Actually, my goal was to do well in the semi-final, I would have never imagined making it to the final in a World Cup. It’s a dream coming true.

“To do this in front of a French audience is the best. I know they are here to push me to my limit, and the final will be good with their support.”

Halenke added: “My climb in the semi-final was decent. I felt a bit pumped. I was hesitant, and I should not have tried to switch feet just before slipping. I should have tried to kind of campus, and it cost me the slip. I think I could have done at least two more moves.

“The route was pure endurance, so you could only get more pumped, but not fall. It was super basic, and I didn’t have time to train for this type of climb, as I am still recovering from a knee surgery I had in April. The holds were brand new, but the route felt like one from when I started competing many years ago.”

For the men’s Lead complete results click here.

A much more diverse group of climbers qualified for the women’s Lead final, as Italy, Austria, South Korea, Japan, Bulgaria, and Slovenia all made it to the top eight.

Laura Rogora – an Olympian at Tokyo 2020 Olympian, and a future participant at Paris 2024 – claimed the top of the table with a score of 41+, the same as Austria’s Mattea Pötzi, who finished second because of a lower placement in the qualification round.

“I tried my best and got into the flow well,” commented Pötzi. “The route was surprisingly easy, to be honest, especially in the steep part. Every hold was good. And at the end with the big slopers, it got hard, and I got pumped.

“Tomorrow I just want to climb, have fun, and give my all!”

Pötzi’s 16-year-old teammate Flora Oblasser qualified in eighth place and will try to best the fifth place she took at the previous World Cup in Chamonix, France

Also competing in tomorrow’s final will be legendary climber Kim Jain of South Korea, Japan’s Kotake Mei – winner of the bronze medal in Chamonix – Aleksandra Totkova of Bulgaria, and two more teenagers: Oda Natsumi of Japan, 16; and Rosa Rekar of Slovenia, 18.

For the women’s Lead complete results click here.

The IFSC World Cup in Briançon, France, will end tomorrow night, with the men’s Lead final starting at 20:30 (UTC+2:00), followed by the women’s one.

News and updates about all IFSC events will be available on the IFSC website, and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Douyin and Weibo.