An amazing weekend for Will Bosi as he became the first British male to make an IFSC Lead World Cup final in nearly 30 years. And if that wasn’t enough, he also set a new British record on the Speed wall.

The GB Climbing Team headed to Chamonix for the second IFSC Lead event of the year, some fresh from the British Bouldering Championships only the weekend before and others having competed in the previous IFSC Lead event in Villars. It was a great performance all round from the team, but an outstanding result for Will Bosi, who climbed brilliantly throughout the whole competition and in the final came within three moves of the podium.

Domen Skofic of Slovenia and Alex Megos of Germany both managed 46+ moves, but Alex just pipped Domen and won the bronze medal on countback. Stefano Ghisolfi of Italy took the gold medal with the only top of the finals route. Meanwhile in the women's, Jain Kim of Korea came within two moves of the top to win bronze. Janja Garnbret of Slovenia looked likely to take home another gold medal when she surpassed the previous high point and slapped the top hold of the finals route, however, Jessica Pilz of Austria eased her way across the final holds to match the top jug and claim her first IFSC World Cup victory.

Having made 43+ moves, Will came in a very respectable 5th place in his first ever senior Lead final and became the first British male to reach an IFSC Lead World Cup final since the late 90s. After an unfortunate Qualifiers, Jim Pope came in 55th and Dave Barrans 86th.

Over in the women’s, Emily Phillips came within striking distance of semi-finals in 38th, Hannah Slaney the new British Bouldering Champion was not far behind in 42nd, meanwhile Rhoslyn Frugtniet and Jen Wood came in 73rd and 75th, respectively.

It might be the first senior IFSC Lead world cup for the males in 20 years but not so for the females. Just last year, Molly Thompson-Smith and Shauna Coxsey both made Lead finals; Shauna placed sixth in her first senior lead comp while Molly became the first British female to win a lead medal when she took bronze.

Ian Dunn, GB Climbing Team coach, said on Facebook: “Who was the last GB male climber to make a lead WC final? From what I remember, Ben Moon and Malcolm Smith made finals in the Birmingham competitions at the NIA in the 1990s, Ian Vickers made finals too and before that Jerry Moffat, Simon Nadin, Mark Leach, Ian Vincent, and Tony Ryan. Great effort by William Bosi, you have joined a strong group there!”

There’s no easy way to look back on the international results of British males, but according to sources it’s likely that Ian Vickers was the last to reach an international final back in 1998, which is also the year that Will Bosi was born!

WATCH: The Chamonix IFSC Lead finals highlights

Results of the IFSC Lead World Cup, Chamonix 2018

Speed climbing – new British record

In the Speed qualifiers just the day before the Lead comp, Will managed to rocket past his previous best when he climbed more than a second faster than when he took the title at the British Speed Championship in 2017.  Will had previously set the British speed climbing record at Innsbruck in September 2017, when he posted a time of 8.45 seconds that helped him qualify for the final of the combined format. But at the IFSC Speed World Cup on the weekend, Will cruised past his old best to finish with a time of 7.66 seconds, a new British record.

 

7.66s New British Speed climbing record! Good start to the Chamonix World Cup, now I’m ready for Lead tomorrow. 📹 @jackpalmieri . @adidasterrex @wildcountry_official @latticetraining @sublimeclimbing @cressivedx #pureclimbing #climbing #speedclimbing #sub8 #chamonix

A post shared by William Bosi (@will_bosi) on Jul 11, 2018 at 8:53am PDT

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