With an incredible showing Tomoa Narasaki wins another IFSC title for his home country in Hachioji, Japan. He now adds Combined IFSC Climbing World Championships Gold in addition to being World Champion for Bouldering and Gold Medalist in the Bouldering World Cup in 2019.
Ahead of the 2020 Olympics the IFSC Combined Climbing World Championships have been the event to watch. The results from this Combined category are going to be a good guide to what to expect come 2020, however things still may change. More importantly for competitors – the top 8 qualifiers for each gender category will be given a place in the 2020 Olympics.
IFSC Combined Climbing World Championships Qualifiers
The qualifications were a hard fought battle. Starting with Speed Rishat Khaibullin of Kazakhstan took first, Ludovico Fossali of Italy took second (after taking Gold in the separate Speed event), and a surprise third for Mickael Mawem of France. Tomoa Narasaki managed fourth with an amazing time of 6.352 which is almost unheard of for a non-specialist in Speed climbing.
In the Boulder round Kai Harada of Japan took third, Jakob Schubert of Austria came second – both with three tops – and Alexander Megos in first by topping all four boulders in style. Again Tomoa Narasaki took fourth, and Meichi Narasaki in fifth. Adam Ondra didn’t seem as strong as he is known to be though managed sixth place.
Going in to the Lead quals Tomoa was in first place and poised to take the win. Kai Harada came out with a not great run but managed 13th. Jakob Schubert has a winner’s history as he was last year’s winner in both Lead and Combined events, as well as the same results in 2018’s World Cup. Only one hold away from the winner’s result he came second in the Combined Lead quals. In first was the incredibly strong Alexander Megos who was absolutely on fire until this point.
Adam Ondra Steps on Bolt – Penalised
Adam Ondra actually did very well in Lead though did slip near the top. He could have made it to the top without this unexpected slip, but even though it wasn’t a great result would have made third place overall. Even worse came a decision from the judges after an appeal was made that Ondra had stepped on the third bolt. This led to his score being brought down to the last hold he touched before standing on the bolt. The drop in placing brought him well out of the 2020 Olympics invitation list in a massive shock for many.
With all of the results tallied and multiplied together, the top 10 stood as below – though only the top eight go through to compete in finals. Why have we listed the top 10? Read below…
1st Alexander Megos – Germany
2nd Jakob Schubert – Austria
3rd Tomoa Narasaki – Japan
4th Kokoro Fujii – Japan
5th Kai Harada – Japan
6th Rishat Khaibullin – Kazahkstan
7th Meichi Narasaki – Japan
8th Mickael Mawem – France
9th Ludovico Fossali – Italy
10th Sean Mccoll – Canada
2020 Olympic Qualifiers for Men’s Climbing
The rules state that the top seven are to be sent invites (which they have to accept) to the 2020 Olympics. However only two athletes from each country can be invited – plus an extra invite for Japan as the host country. As a result, these are the so far confirmed athletes for invitation direct from the IFSC. Bear in mind that Japan can invite their last guaranteed athlete at any time up until the Olympics and they don’t have to have made Combined finals as far as we can discern.
Update – It seems like Japan have decided use their one invite on another competition, so Sean McColl of Canada has been told that he has a place in the 2020 Olympics! This also means Kai Harada is in after taking fifth, though Kokoro Fujii also of Japan took a higher place.
- Tomoa NARASAKI (JPN)
- Jakob SCHUBERT (AUT)
- Rishat KHAIBULLIN (KAZ)
- Kai HARADA (JPN)
- Mickael MAWEM (FRA)
- Alexander MEGOS (GER)
- Ludovico FOSSALI (ITA)
- Unconfirmed – Sean McColl (CAN)
IFSC Combined Climbing World Championships Finals
The Finals continued from here again with Speed first. Kai Harada took 3rd, Tomoa Narasaki 2nd, and Rishat Khaibullin again taking first. Michael Mawem came in at a close fourth. Bouldering started sadly with Alexander Megos sustaining a finger injury on the very first boulder. After having been such a strong competitor this year he actually dropped out and radically changed the game for the rest of the competitors.
Japan showed strong in Bouldering finals with Kokoro Fujii taking third, Meichi Narasaki second, and a dominant Tomoa Narasaki topping all three boulders for first. Mickael Mawam again came in a close fourth for France.
In the lead we saw Jakob Schubert busting out an amazing top and a win – a full ten holds further than Tomoa who managed second place, with Kai Harada making the same hold in slightly more time.
Overall in the 2019 IFSC Combined Climbing World Championships Tomoa Narasaki took first place with a brilliant showing. A well deserved second went to Jakob Schubert and a surprise third for Rishat Khaibullin. Rishat has really stood out in that he is a Speed focused climber that managed to get good results in Bouldering and Lead.
Who Will Win 2020 Olympics?
In general a lot of people thought that the climbers from a Lead and Bouldering background would be taking all of the podium places as Speed competitors tended only to do that type of event. Interestingly the conversation could now change away from “if x could just get more practice in speed” to what if a good all-rounder who is best at speed manages to train well for all three events?
The 2020 Olympics are coming up fast at only one year away. Japan have a lot of invitation places and more events with qualifiers to come. It could be that the winners of this year’s events aren’t the best competitors next year, so climbers that haven’t got the best results end up in the Olympics instead of proven winners. Keep coming back for more news by bookmarking our site or follow us on twitter, facebook, instagram or pinterest.
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