Slovenia’s Vita Lukan Shines Amid Garnbret’s Absence at Briançon World Cup

The IFSC’s World Cup circuit rolled into Briançon, France, this weekend. It was the last stop on the circuit’s European swing before the upcoming World Championships, a multi-disciplinary event in Switzerland that will have hefty Olympic implications. As such, the results of the lead discipline at Briançon gave an enticing sneak-peek of some athletes that might be performatively peaking at just the right time to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics. 

Here’s a rundown of all the action from Briançon…

First-Ever Gold for Slovenia’s Lukan

In many ways, it felt like the women’s portion of the event began as a continuation of last weekend’s World Cup in Chamonix. South Korea’s Jain Kim, the winner of that Chamonix event, shot to the top of the leaderboard in the qualification round at Briançon, prompting speculation that she might be on her way to another gold medal. And it absolutely would have made for a wonderful, feel-good story. But Kim’s chances came to an abrupt end in the ensuing semi-final round; she slipped unexpectedly at the lip of the headwall and had to settle for an eventual 14th place. What’s more, Kim’s Korean compatriot, Chaehyun Seo, fell in the exact same spot on the semi-finals route, thus creating a significant opportunity for other competitors to surge ahead of the undeniable favorites. 

To that point, one of the best performances in the semi-finals came from the Czech Republic’s Eliska Adamovska, who scaled the route’s lower “battery-shaped volumes” and crimped her way to a high point (49+) on the headwall. That score was enough to give Adamovska a narrow lead, but Japan’s Nonoha Kume wasn’t far behind on the scorecards (49). Furthermore, a cruxy right-hand crimp on the headwall caused a bottleneck at the 45th hold and allowed any semblance of separation below Adamovska and Kume to be murky at best. 

The final round kicked off with its own mini-bottleneck: Germany’s Martina Demmel and France’s Camille Pouget both ascended to the headwall before failing on a leftward launch for the 35th hold. Their woes on the burly finals route hinted that most scores in the round could be somewhat low. However, in stark contrast to her modest start to the event (13th place in the qualification round), Slovenia’s Vita Lukan took to the wall, romped through the headwall’s feet-first mantle crux, and set a new high point of 46. Shortly thereafter, France’s Manon Hily put forth a valiant effort on the headwall too (aided by the loud French crowd), but she pumped out two moves shy of Lukan’s mark. 

Adamovska, climbing last, also roused the crowd as she approached Lukan’s high point, but fell in the same place as Hily. As a result, Lukan was awarded the gold medal. With tying scores of 44+, Adamovska and Hily were separated by countback—Adamovska with the silver, and Hily with the bronze. 

All tops for Japan’s Anraku

If the women’s division possessed a theme of an ever-changing leaderboard throughout the rounds, the men’s division had the opposite. The consistent standout for the men was Japan’s Sorato Anraku. He was the only competitor to reach the top of both routes in the qualification round, and he carried such consistency into the semi-final round as well—where he once again topped the route.

Yet, in a sense, Anraku was not the main story. Instead, it was his Japanese team, as a collective, that shined most. In particular, Masahiro Higuchi also reached the top of the semi-finals route. Taisei Homma and Haruki Uemura did not top the route, but they came close—each with concluding scores of 45+. And Satone Yoshida was right below them on the scorecards with a mark of 43+. 

In fact, a total of seven members of Team Japan advanced to the men’s final round—a new record; the sole outlier in the finals, as a non-member of Team Japan, was Sweden’s Hannes Puman. Of the finalists, Yoshida and Homma set early high points in the final round, progressing to the headwall and getting stymied while attempting to lock onto a dual-tex sloper. Puman climbed shortly thereafter, but fell much lower on the route while readjusting a slippery right-hand. Anraku climbed last, contextualized by commentator Matt Groom as “probably the favorite on paper.” Indeed, Anraku made quick work of the route’s lower section and breezed over pair of sloper volumes that led to the headwall. Then Anraku coasted through the cruxy dual-tex sloper to establish a new high point—and, as if to end on a perfect note, he continued to the top. In doing so, Anraku clinched the gold medal—his first-ever in the lead discipline—in dominant fashion; Homma and Yoshida, with matching scores of 49+, earned the silver and bronze medals, respectively, to round out the all-Team Japan podium. 

Random Thoughts and Musings

1. Similar to last weekend’s World Cup in Chamonix, this event in Briançon lacked a lot of the circuit’s typical standouts: Jakob Schubert, Adam Ondra, Sascha Lehmann, Colin Duffy, and Sean Bailey (among others) in the men’s division; Janja Garnbret, Brooke Raboutou, Ai Mori, Miho Nonaka, Oriane Bertone, Hannah Meul, Natalia Grossman, and Jessica Pilz (among others) in the women’s division. Presumably, all of them are prepping mentally and physically for the upcoming World Championships.
   2. Speaking of Janja Garnbret, I think this win was huge for her teammate Vita Lukan. There has long been a very intriguing question as to who is the best Slovenian competitor in the women’s division beneath Garnbret:  Mia Krampl, Lučka Rakovec, Katja Debevec? Lukan made a compelling case for herself by securing this gold medal in Briançon.
2. The separation in the men’s final round was really good—37+, 39, 40+, 44+, 49, 49+, etc. The route was interesting as well, mainly as a mix of crimps and pinches. My only gripe is that I wish the dyno at hold 12 had posed more of a threat. Nobody struggled with it, and the route didn’t really get spicy at all until the headwall. 
3. Chaehyun Seo’s fall in the women’s semi-finals was the most surprising part of the entire competition for me. I expected her to come back with a vengeance after that clipping fluke in Chamonix. And maybe she would have, but she happened to reach for a blocked hold on the most blocked portion of the hold’s surface…which sent her off the wall at a shockingly low spot. And panning out, Seo’s lead results this year haven’t been as high as we expected them to be—in fact, she’s yet to make a podium. Of course, that all becomes moot if she ends up having a fantastic performance at the upcoming World Championships. 
4. I can’t help but wonder what could have been if Japan’s Nonoha Kume had managed her time a bit better in the women’s final round. She looked completely untroubled for most of the route, but she also climbed very slowly. When she finally started to speed up, she was too low on the headwall to make up enough time. Still, this has been a breakout season for Kume, and if she can start climbing a bit quicker, she’ll be a major force for seasons to come. 
5. I don’t want to be a stick-in-the-mud, but I think the fancy light show (created via some audience participation with cell phones) is kind of a case of: “You had to be there.” Sure, it’s probably really neat to see it in-person, but it doesn’t really translate to anything visually special on the livestream.   
6. The IFSC made a point to highlight the fact that Canada’s Sean McColl set an all-time World Cup participation record in Briançon. McColl has now taken part in 174 World Cups in a career that dates all the way back to 2003. That is a wild statistic. But more impressive than the sheer longevity is the fact that McColl has been competitive in nearly all those appearances, and in many cases finishing in the top 25.

Results

Men

1. Sorato Anraku (JPN)
2. Taisei Homma (JPN)
3. Satone Yoshida (JPN)
4. Yoshiyuki Ogata (JPN)
5. Shion Omata (JPN)
6. Masahiro Higuchi (JPN)
7. Hannes Puman (SWE)
8. Haruki Uemura (JPN)

Women

1. Vita Lukan (SLO)
2. Eliska Adamovska (CZE)
3. Manon Hily (FRA)
4. Nonoha Kume (JPN)
5. Molly Thompson-Smith (GBR)
6. Camille Pouget (FRA)
7. Martina Demmel (GER)
8. Natsuki Tanii (JPN)