Boulder World Cup Innsbruck 2023: Flashed to the Top

The Boulder World Cup Innsbruck 2023 has wrapped up in the beautiful Innsbruck, Austria marking the end of the Boulder World Cup competitions this 2023 season. Fans have been enjoying 7 days of various events taking place while Innsbruck holds four international competitions this week. The women’s and men’s boulder finals have proved to be as invigorating as ever as the athletes aim to reach the top of the podium.

Women’s Boulder Final

The Boulder World Cup Innsbruck 2023 women’s boulder final showcased tough boulder problems that proved to test the player’s technique, approach to solving boulders, and limitations. The two dynos (W1 and W4) proved most challenging to players that are more apt at static climbing.

The boulders proved to not be a problem for Slovenia’s Janja Garbret who has come into the 2023 World Cup season with full force after a toe injury that prevented her from competing at the beginning of this year’s events.

Garbret flawlessly flashed all four boulders, meaning she topped every boulder with only one attempt each. She blew past the competition at the Boulder World Cup Innsbruck 2023 event to secure her first gold medal this season.

Second and Third place finishes were neck and neck with each getting two tops and four zones, coming down to the number of attempts to zone. Pushing ahead of Japan’s Miho Nonaka was America’s Natalia Grossman with 11 attempts to Nonaka’s 13 attempts.

The silver medal marked Grossman’s third medal this season after receiving two World Cup gold medals (Salt Lake City and Brixen) in women’s boulder. Coming in third was Miho Nonaka who was overjoyed to join her fellow competitors on the podium at the Boulder World Cup Innsbruck 2023 with the bronze medal.

Men’s Boulder Final

Japan’s Sorato Anraku, the 16-year-old climber, claimed his first Boulder World Cup gold medal in men’s boulder. Through a strong display of athleticism and determination, he topped three out of the four boulders which secured him his place on top of the podium.

He was up against his fellow teammate Japan’s Meichi Narasaki who showed that he was at the top of his game during qualifications and semi-finals. Narasaki has been pushing to get on the World Cup podium again since 2017, and tonight he did exactly that.

Narasaki took home the silver medal by topping three boulders at this year’s Boulder World Cup Innsbruck 2023 event. Unfortunately, he fell short of taking the lead with only 11 attempts to top compared to Anraku’s 15 attempts.

France’s Sam Avezou took his place on the podium next to Anraku and Narasaki with the bronze medal. He topped two boulders with four attempts beating out Korea’s Jongwon Chon.

With the men’s and women’s boulder competitions finishing, the IFSC World Cup hands over the next leg of the competition to the Lead World Cup. We are likely to see most of these professional boulderers also compete in the lead events this year.

Follow Us for Upcoming Events

For more information about the event pertaining to the results, location, videos, images, and so on, please visit the Boulder World Cup Innsbruck 2023 event page. With the final boulder competition, you can look forward to the start of the lead competitions which are also held by Innsbruck. Check out the latest information and videos here.