Climbing once again in front of a big, passionate crowd, the 26 athletes competing in the women’s and men’s Lead qualifications in Innsbruck, Austria, battled for a spot in the top-eight and in the finals.

The women’s event closed with another neck-and-neck duel between the two athletes who recently dominated Lead competitions – Janja Garnbret of Slovenia and Mori Ai of Japan.

Both athletes finished at 48+, just a couple of moves away from the top of the route, with the Slovenian taking first place because of a better placement in the qualification round. Crowd favourite Jessica Pilz followed in third place, scoring 43+.

Also making the top-eight and earning her first trip to a Lead final round was Annie Sanders of the USA, while a second final ticket went to another Austrian athlete: Mattea Pötzi, eighth with 34+.

Along with Pilz and Pötzi, the great performance of the Austrian home team was confirmed by the best career placement recorded by Julia Fiser – ninth with the same score as Pötzi – and by the stunning World Cup debut of 16-year-old Flora Oblasser – tenth with 33+.

“The semi-final route was cool, and people so loud. I always enjoy climbing in front of my home crowd, my family was down there somewhere. At one point I thought I could climb way higher, I just wanted to make the top and make the people go wild,” said Oblasser.

For the women’s Lead semi-final complete results click here.

Despite not taking first place, the protagonist of the men’s semi-final was 20-year-old Jonas Utelli of Switzerland, who placed fourth and earned himself a World Cup final appearance for the first time after 11 Lead World Cup participations.

Utelli said: “It was just incredible. Climbing in front of this huge crowd, I really enjoyed it and I am happy that I could fight. Honestly, as I was high on the wall, I could not hear the crowd. I was very pumped and focused on my climbing. I think the whole competition until now, eighth after qualification, now I put on a great show in the semi-final, what can I ask more?”

First place in the round went to Austria’s Jakob Schubert with 49+, followed by Great Britain’s Toby Roberts, second with 46+.

After sweeping the men’s Boulder podium in last night’s final, Team Japan also moved three climbers in the men’s Lead final: Homma Taisei, third with 46+; Tanaka Shuta, seventh with 43; and Narasaki Tomoa, eighth also with 43.

For the men’s Lead semi-final complete results click here.

The IFSC World Cup Innsbruck 2024 will conclude tomorrow at the legendary Kletterzentrum: the men’s Lead final is schedule to start at 19:40 (UTC+2:00), followed by the women’s one at 20:40.

News and updates about the 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.