While all eyes were on Janja Garnbret with her search for her 50th gold and her rivalry with Oriane Bertone, Zélia Avezou focused on her climbing to clinch her first gold ahead of her rivals.
After the first boulder in which every climber zoned, boulder two is where the cracks started to come.
Avezou and Bertone both flashed the second boulder while Garnbret took two attempts.
Bertone flashed the third and Azezou took two attempts. Garnbret once again lost some ground with four goes for her top.
As Avezou was out in the first half of the competitors, and topped boulder four, the mathematicians had figured out that even with a flash Garnbret could not overcome the French climber.
With a zone and two tops, Australia’s Oce Mackenzie and USA’s Annie Sanders were sitting behind Avezou and had to watch both Bertone and Garnbret come out to push them off the podium.
Avezou had 84.8pts. Mackenzie had 69.6pts. Sanders 69.5pts.
Out came Bertone. A failed first attempt saw the French climber take a seat on the mat and compose herself as she has done on many occasions. However, as the time ticked down, Bertone stood for her second attempt and once again came down with nothing.
It meant she was out of the running with 60.0pts and Avezou was confirmed as the champion. It was just down to Garnbret to see what she could do.
In the typical Garnbret style everyone had been waiting for, she flashed to move onto 84.6pts and a silver medal, pushing Sanders down to fourth and Bertone to fifth. Aussie Mackenzie had won bronze.
After her gold had been confirmed Avezou said: “Honestly, I’m just wondering what has happened. I think I will fully realise later maybe.”
Talking about her approach to the final the French climber said: “I just took it one boulder at a time. I thought the boulders were pretty easy apart from the first one, and the last would be really important.
“I didn’t really think about the win, I just thought that if I got ten points on the final boulder I can get in a good position. Maybe I didn’t think I could top it honestly, but it was nice to do a physical boulder for once in my life.”
Great Britain’s Emma Edwards has made a final before, but this is the first she actually competed in after the IFSC World Cup Prague was cancelled due to weather last season.
Edwards finished in sixth overall on 59.8pts ahead of Japan’s Melody Sekikawa on 59.7pts and Slovenia’s Jennifer Buckley on 44.7pts.
RESULTS
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UP NEXT
The men will finish the competition in Keqiao with the semi-final and final tomorrow. The semi-final and final rounds will be live streamed on the World Climbing YouTube channel, with geo-blocking applied to selected countries and territories.
For an overview of where to watch the event click here.
News and updates will be available on the World Climbing website and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, X, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Bilibili, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.