BURSTThe spotlight was on Janja Garnbret, as it always is in Koper, and once again the Slovenian star delivered, overcoming a late slip to fight her way to victory on the women’s final route. The victory marks Garnbret’s 33rd gold medal in Lead and her 51st overall.
Brooke Raboutou of the USA had set the benchmark at hold 33, leaving Garnbret as the final climber out and knowing exactly what she needed to do for gold. Speaking after the final, Garnbret said: “It feels amazing to compete in front of the home crowd. I’m not competing much but every time I step out onto the field, I feel I am in competition mode.
“The route was fantastic, but I have to say I was fighting with the humidity. I was sliding off every hold. First there was a scary moment on the yellow pocket, I had zero chalk, but also the upper purple part was super humid, so I am glad I came off at that point.”
Raboutou’s high point of 33 earned her silver, her first medal of 2026 in her second Lead competition of the season following Chamonix. Her last Lead podium came in Madrid in 2025, where she won bronze.
South Korea’s Chaehyun Seo added another Lead medal to her growing collection, taking bronze on hold 32+. It is her fourth medal of the year, having also won silver, and means she has reached the podium at all five 2026 World Climbing Series competitions. USA’s Annie Sanders also reached hold 32+, but finished fourth after countback to the semi-final.
Home favourite Rosa Rekar was visibly disappointed after falling from the wall at hold 30 in front of a supportive home crowd. The result left her in fifth, likely short of what she had hoped for on home soil. Austria’s Jessica Pilz finished sixth on hold 27, while France’s Zélia Avezou was seventh on hold 25. Both had a short wait before beginning their climbs after a technical issue with the stadium clocks delayed their starts.
South Korea’s Chaeyeong Kim, competing in her first final, finished eighth on hold 13+. She can nevertheless take plenty of confidence from a strong showing in Slovenia.
For men, Japan’s Neo Suzuki mastered a difficult Lead route that caught out the final eight climbers low on the wall to claim gold in Koper. Having finished the semi-final in third, Suzuki moved past every climber before him in the final, setting a high point of 33+, just below the head wall. That was enough to guarantee him a medal, with only South Korea’s Dohyun Lee and Italy’s Filip Schenk left to climb.
Both Lee and Schenk stumbled at the same point on the route, moving past a clipping point at hold 23 before falling as they attempted to rectify the mistake. Neither could recover, handing Suzuki the gold.
After his win, Suzuki said: “I’m so happy because I’ve been training really hard since Chamonix. The route was maybe my style, but it was very hard and kept getting harder and harder.”
The victory is Suzuki’s third of the year, following wins in Wujiang and Innsbruck, and extends his lead in the 2026 series standings heading into the final Lead competition of the season in Santiago, Chile, in late October. Suzuki’s teammate Satone Yoshida, the second climber out in the final, eventually took silver after reaching hold 30+. It is his first podium of the year and his return to a Lead podium since the 2025 World Championships in Seoul.
Indonesia’s Putra Tri Ramadani took bronze on hold 28+, continuing an impressive 2026 campaign that has included his first World Climbing Series gold. Koper marks his second consecutive third-place finish, underlining his consistency on the European stage of the season.
Sam Avezou finished fourth on hold 23+, clipping and reaching for the next hold that Lee and Schenk missed. With the climbers separated by their hold 23 scores, Schenk finished fifth and Lee sixth.
Italy’s Giovanni Placci was seventh on hold 22, while first-time finalist Chanjin Jung also finished on hold 22. The South Korean Youth World Champion reached the final in his first World Climbing Series appearance, suggesting there is plenty more to come from the young climber.
Finals
The post Janja Garnbret Wins Another Climbing Gold Medal appeared first on Gripped Magazine.