USA’s Annie Sanders has doubled her IFSC World Cup Boulder gold tally taking top spot in Keqiao, China in the first event of the season.

Breaking the golden barrier in Seoul in the 2024 season finale, Sanders made it two from two with another gold at the start of the 2025 Series.

Sanders however didn’t get off to the best start in the final – which now features eight climbers – and thought her podium push was over before it had even began: “I’m pretty excited honestly. I definitely wasn’t expecting it, especially after the first boulder where I was frustrated and pretty much not getting anywhere on the second boulder.

“I was in a bit of a bad headspace, but the third boulder lightened my mood and the fourth I just gave it everything to get to the zone.”

Sanders won gold with 54.7pts ahead of France’s Oriane Bertone in second and Great Britain’s Erin Mcneice in third.

Bertone had the chance to take gold as the final climber out on the mat, but had to top to do so. She made it to the zone in the first attempt for 10pts, which crucially moved her ahead of Mcneice by .01pts for a silver medal place.

The French climber couldn’t continue the progress to the top though and had to settle for the silver with 44.9pts.

Mcneice, Bertone and Sanders all topped boulder three, but it was the attempts that mattered as Mcneice got her bronze with 44.8pts after having one more attempt for her top than Bertone.

Japan’s Nakamura Mao just missed out on a podium despite also topping boulder three. She led a trio of Japanese climbers finishing fourth with 44.4pts ahead of teammates Nonaka Miho and Sekikawa Melody who was competing in her first World Cup final.

Nonaka came out of the blocks flying and was the only climber to top the first boulder, but the Japanese climber couldn’t continue the run, and her challenge faded away to fifth place on 44.1pts.

Sekikawa scored 29.9pts for sixth place ahead of South Korea’s Seo Chaehyun in seventh on 19.6pts, and Australia’s Oce Mackenzie, who told us after the semi-final that she was struggling with her skin, finished in eighth with 9.9pts.

Full results can be found here

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