The women are closer to their World Climbing Series Bern medallists as eight book their finals places in a hard-fought semi-final round
Coming out first in a round can sometimes be a blessing as there is a little less pressure on you. But when you flash the first boulder you know you are climbing well and you are in with a shot. That is what happened to France’s Lucile Saurel.
Seeing the first climber flashing the first boulder, you could be forgiven for thinking that the round was going to be a high scoring one, especially with the ease and flow that Saurel seemed to have.
However, as more climbers tried and failed, and Saurel completed her four boulders for a score of 69.2pts, the only thing she could do was sit and wait to see how the others faired.
As it turned out, it would be a hard-fought round for the final’s places.
In great form once again was USA’s Annie Sanders who was the only climber to top the four boulders. Joining Sanders in the final is teammate Brooke Raboutou who scored 69.7pts from two tops and two zones.
Two tops and two zones was a score that got you into the top five with Raboutou second, Saurel fifth, and Japan’s Mao Nakamura in third and Great Britain’s Erin McNeice in fourth.
After her round Nakamura said: “I’m happy to be in the final, that round was hard. It surprised me a bit as yesterday’s quali was pretty easy.”
Like most of the top order climbers, Nakamura topped three and four, but she had her preference: “I’d say my favourite boulder was number three because it had a lot of sequences and it felt like a puzzle.”
Both Saurel and Nakamura will have teammates with them in the final as Oriane Bertone finished the round in sixth on 54.8pts and Melody Sekikawa finished in eighth on 54.3pts.
Splitting the two in seventh position was the Keqiao bronze medallist Oce Mackenzie from Australia.
Scoring 54.4pts, Mackenzie said: “I’m happy to be in the final. I felt a bit tired after doing both Boulder and Lead in China, a lot more I expected really.
“The semi-final boulders were long, and I feel didn’t really suit my style, so I hope for a different style tonight.”
There were a few tops on boulder three, a lot of tops on boulder four, but only three on boulder one. Sanders, Saurel and Switzerland’s crowd favourite Sofya Yokoyama were those climbers.
Despite the good start, Yokoyama could only zone two more boulders which left her in 12th overall but leaving her home nation event with by far the biggest support and cheers of the competition every time she was on the mats.
RESULTS
Full results can be found here
WHERE TO WATCH
The World Climbing Series Bern 2026 continue with the men’s qualification at 15:30 (UTC+2:00).
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 all the facts and stats of the event click here.
For an overview of where to watch the event click here.
News and updates about all World Climbing events will be available on the official website, and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Bilibili, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.