Sports Bulletin Report
Birmingham (USA):The World Games Birmingham 2022 came to a close with medals confirmed across all the Sport Climbing disciplines- Boulder, Lead, and Speed. In the 11th edition of the multi-sport event, and the fifth appearance for Climbing, there were six gold medals spread across six competing nations in Alabama, USA.
HUNT AND LEONARDO RULE SPEED
USA’s Emma Hunt pleased her home crowd with a win in the women’s speed, a feat that also gained her Athlete of the Day status from the event organizers. The former Youth Worlds champion impressively beat the current world champion, Poland’s Natalia, in the final with a time of 7.24 compared to the silver medalists. Bronze was taken by Germany’s Franziska Ritter, who narrowly beat French Capucine by just 0.06 seconds.
Leonardo won an all-Indonesian final against teammate Kiromal Katibin in the men’s speed competition to take gold. Katibin has been breaking the world speed record on a consistent basis recently, but had to settle for a silver medal as he was unable to register a time in the final. Leonardo clocked 7.23 to take the top step of the podium. The Indonesian climbers were joined by bronze medallist Yaroslav of Ukraine, who again won a tight medal race against Kazakhstan's Rishat by just 0.04 seconds.
JAPAN DOMINATES BOULDER WITH FOUR MEDALS
At The World Games 2017, Japan’s Nonaka Miho took a silver medal. This time around, the Olympic silver medallist upgraded to gold. The Japanese climber won a competitive women’s Boulder event beating second-placed Katja of Slovenia and compatriot Nakamura Mao. There were also two Japanese medallists in the men’s event, but this time no gold for The World Games 2017 gold medallist Ogata Yoshiyuki, who had to settle for a bronze.
Fujii Kokoro and Belgium’s part-time climber Nicolas Collin were the competition standouts topping all four problems in the final. Tied all the way, Kokoro and Collin had to be separated by attempts with the Belgian coming out on top to take the gold. The nursing student only just made the finals in sixth position but showed his class in the final to take the top step above his two Japanese rivals.
PILZ AND LEHMANN CELEBRATE LEAD GOLDS
A week after topping the Lead final route at the IFSC World Cup in Chamonix, France, missing out on a medal in fourth place, Austria’s Jessica Pilz proudly stood on the top step of the World Games podium with a gold medal around her neck. She was joined on the women’s Lead podium by Tanii Natsuki of Japan who claimed silver ahead of Slovenia’s Lana Skusek in bronze.
