Janja Garnbret continued her rapid ascent of the climbing world with her convincing first place in the 2017 IFSC Climbing World Cup. The final event was held November 11–12 in Kranj, but the 18-year old had already secured her victory on points last month in Xiamen, China, and is also the first athlete to have won nine IFSC World Cup events in a single season. Take a look at the video below to see her make fast work of a challenging wall in Switzerland earlier this year.
Garnbret took first place in today's competition, the only climber to reach the top, followed by Korea's Jian Kim, who slipped at the final banana, while Great Britain's Molly Thompson-Smith won her first medal in third place.
Garnbret is from Šmartno, near Slovenj Gradec, and in her first season of competitive climbing, just last year, won the title of World Champion in Technical Difficulty, as well as being the joint winner of the World Cup in Technical Difficulty and Combination. To these skills she’s also added bouldering, and is obviously gearing up for a great run at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where sports climbing will be a featured event.
Also notable for local fans is the fifth place won this weekend by the veteran Mina Markovic, and seventh place by Vita Lukan. Several other Slovene climbers finished in the top 50, with the full list of women's results available here. In the men’s competition, the highest-ranking Slovene was Domen Skofic, in fourth place, with the competion won by the Austrian Jakob Schuber (full results).
