Mina Markovič, Romain Desgranges Win Lead World Cup, Imst, Austria
With her ankle wrapped in green tape, Mina Markovič stood on the podium in Imst, Austria, taking home her second gold medal of the lead IFSC World Cup season—after spraining her ankle at the last World Cup in Briançon, France.
With her ankle wrapped in green tape, Mina Markovič stood on the podium in Imst, Austria, taking home her second gold medal of the lead IFSC World Cup season. She sprained her ankle at the last World Cup in Briançon, France and before this weekend, she hadn’t worn climbing shoes in two weeks.
“With participation in this comp, I won a battle with myself,” Markovič wrote on her blog. “Coming home [from Briançon] with an injured ankle was not easy. I was upset, because I knew that I was in really good shape.”
Markovič’s 16-year-old teammate, Janja Garnbret, placed second, less than half a point behind Markovič. This was her second ever World Cup competition. Jessica Pilz of Austria earned 52+ points to secure her third place finish. Delaney Miller, the only American female, finished 11th.
“I’m extremely happy with my performance despite missing my goal of making finals,” Miller wrote on Facebook. “I hadn’t been feeling great all weekend, but I fought as hard as I could.”
On the men’s side, Romain Desgranges of France and Jakob Schubert of Austria battled for the gold, with Desgranges winning by less than one point. Domen Škofič of Slovenia placed third. Sixteen-year-old Kai Lightner, the sole American in the men’s field, earned a place in Semi-Finals and finished 19th overall.
The final IFSC bouldering World Cup will be held in Munich, Germany, August 14 and 15. Stavanger, Norway will host the next lead World Cup competition August 21 and 22.
Watch the Men’s and Women’s Lead Finals in Imst:
Results:
Women’s Lead:
- Mina Markovič (SLO)
- Janja Garnbret (SLO)
- Jessica Pilz (AUT)
- Hélène Janicot (FRA)
- Yuka Kobayashi (JPN)
- Tjasa Kalan (SLO)
- Christine Schranz (AUT)
- Anak Verhoeven (BEL)
Men’s Lead:
- Romain Desgranges (FRA)
- Jakob Schubert (AUT)
- Domen Škofič (SLO)
- Adam Ondra (CZE)
- Gautier Supper (FRA)
- Sebastian Halenke (GER)
- Urban Primožič (SLO)
- Thomas Joannes (FRA)