Mackenzie has been a solid performer on the world stage for many years now, and in 2024 took her first World Cup medal with a bronze in Prague. At the last World Climbing Series Boulder comp in Keqiao Mackenzie added to that tally with another bronze.

In Bern, the Australian climber was a worthy winner taking her first gold, and the first for her country with a three top performance.

Second out in the final, Mackenzie topped the first boulder. Not knowing the scores from behind the wall, she was actually the only climber to do so to take an early advantage.

Mackenzie backed it up with a second top and still held her points advantage and position despite USA’s Annie Sanders and Japan’s Mao Nakamura also topping.

Things got a little tense for Mackenzie as she failed to make the zone on boulder three. But only Great Britain’s Erin McNeice could top that with every other finalist also not making the zone.

It was a final of ups and downs, ebbs and flows. As the last boulder approached there were so many scenarios that could play out.

As Mackenzie sat in the middle of a beta break on the fourth boulder to reach up almost nonchalantly to secure the top, the points had moved to the position that only Sanders could go above her – but Sanders, who came out last, still had to do boulder three. She couldn’t make the zone and the Mackenzie’s points tally was insurmountable.

It was gold for Mackenzie with 74.5pts who said: “I think I am still a little in shock. But really amazing.”

As the camera’s panned to the Aussie winner, she remained calm despite having a certain gold as her coach approached her. Explaining the interaction Mackenzie said: “I found out a bit earlier, but I think my coach was a bit nervous to say I had won so gave me the wrong results. So I had to wait a little bit longer before I was 100% sure before I celebrated so much.”

Talking about her beta breaking final boulder Mackenzie said: “I knew straight away. As soon as I came down after my first attempt. I knew the top hold wasn’t that far away.”

With Sanders missing the zone on three and McNeice topping the fourth boulder, it meant the Brit was the guaranteed silver medallist on 69.0pts. It also meant that Sanders had to regather herself to fight for the bronze.

The fight was made even tougher as teammate Brooke Raboutou topped to set the target of a zone for bronze for Sanders.

She did regather her composure and flashed the top for 60pts and the final place on the podium. It meant Raboutou finished in fourth on 44.1pts.

With 29.7pts, Japan’s Melody Sekikawa was fifth ahead of sixth placed teammate Nakamura. She had flashed boulder two but couldn’t make the zone in any of the other three boulders to finish on 25pts.

French teammates finished next with Oriane Bertone in seventh on 19.8pts and Lucile Saurel eighth on 19.3pts. It was a first final’s appearance for Saurel who will take heart from that going forward into the rest of the season.

RESULTS

Full results can be found here

WHERE TO WATCH

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.