The Climbing World Championships in Innsbruck promised to be a competition of epic proportions from start to finish. 10 days of competition, spanning 11 days in total; hundreds of athletes; three different venues; and four disciplines (lead, speed, bouldering and a combined format final) ensured that anyone in attendance would not be short of action.
The GB Climbing Team sent Emily Phillips, Jen Wood, Molly Thompson-Smith, Hannah Slaney, Nathan Phillips, Will Bosi, Billy Ridal, Jim Pope, Dave Barrans, and Aidan Roberts to the competition.
Day one and two of the competition saw Lead qualifications taking place at the famous Kletterzentrum Innsbruck, followed by semi-final and final rounds the following days at the ‘main’ venue, Olympiaworld. Challenging routes and a huge number of competitors made qualifying for semi-finals a very tough prospect. For the full report, use the link below.
After a day of rest, it was time for the Speed competition taking place again at Olympiaworld. A number of our athletes took part in order to try and qualify for a place in the Combined Format competition. Will Bosi and Billy Ridal competed in the Men’s, placing 50th and 83rd respectively out of 110 athletes, while Jen Wood represented us in the Women’s event and came in 70th out of 89 competitors.
Following the conclusion of speed, in which Reza Alipourshena (IRI) and Alexandra Rudzinska (POL) took the gold medals, it was back to Kletterzentrum Innsbruck for the Bouldering qualification rounds for two days before again retiring to the main stage for the semi-finals and eventually the first World Championship event featuring a Combined Format (Olympic format) final. Use the link below to find out the results of the Bouldering event.
Nathan Phillips mid-air on the tricky M2 dyno in finals. Photo: Liam Lonsdale
The final event of the IFSC World Championships 2018 was the Combined Format where only the top six ranking athletes overall would compete. Only three British athletes had participated in all three of the disciplines: Will Bosi, Billy Ridal and Jen Wood. With semi-final placings for Will and Billy in Lead and Bouldering, respectively, they ended up ranking in the Combined format at 20th for Will, and 39th for Billy out of 87 athletes. Meanwhile, Jen Wood performed well across all three disciplines to place 51st out of 67 women.
Since there were no British athletes in these positions it was left to the rest of the world to battle it out. Janja Garnbret (SLO) and local favourite Jakob Schubert (AUT) fought hard after a long and exhausting competition spanning almost 11 days, topping the podiums to become World Champions in the combined format.
Speed results
Men
1st: Reza Alipourshena (IRI)
50th: Will Bosi (GBR)
Women
1st: Aleksandra Rudzinska (POL)
70th: Jen Wood (GBR)
Combined results
Men
1st: Jakob Schubert (AUT)
20th: Will Bosi (GBR)
Women
1st: Janja Garnbret (SLO)
51st: Jen Wood (GBR)
WATCH: We Are GB Climbing
VIDEO
🧗♀️ FOLLOW: GB Climbing's Instagram for exclusive photos and results
⛰️ JOIN: Become a BMC member and support GB Climbing
📺 WATCH: GB Climbing YouTube playlist
🐦SCROLL: GB Climbing on X for live updates
👍 LIKE: GB Climbing Facebook for even more news and photos
👀 VISIT: GB Climbing website and see who's on the team
GB Climbing is supported by the BMC, Mountaineering Scotland and Secur-it . Many UK walls also support the GB Climbing team through free or subsidised entry.
« Back