The first final line-up of the World Climbing Series 2026 came from a round the climber’s thought was a challenge, but an enjoyable challenge
With Janja Garnbret pressing on with her charge for fifty in full flow, the seven finalists’ looking to spoil her party in Keqiao are hot on her tails after a challenging women’s semi-final.
Garnbret was once again in her familiar first position, with France’s Oriane Bertone in second just behind.
Speaking about boulder three in the semi-final Bertone said: “It was a long boulder, and the way I did it wasn’t the most efficient way. It wasn’t optimal, but I made it work so I’m happy about it because I’m not really strong on long boulders and put energy into the top of long boulders.”
Bertone was surprised to learn her time to complete boulder three saying: “It was two minutes? There’s no way. Wow. When I got onto the last two pinches I was not letting go as I knew if I let go I was not going to ever go up again. I stuck that move and thought ‘I will not fall’, I felt powerful in that move.”
Sitting in third is USA’s Annie Sanders who is slowly getting into the competition flow moving up from 21st in qualification: “I feel like the boulders suited me a lot better today than they did yesterday. The boulders were pretty physical; I actually found the slab to be the most physical. I couldn’t do it properly, but it was physical, and sweaty!”
Sanders wish for the final: “Qualification and semi-final have had hard problems to solve, and I would love the same for the final.”
Making it into the final is Oce Mackenzie, but the Australian has been dealing with an injury niggle and was seen with ice on her knee straight after the semi-final: “I have a bruised bone. It’s been sore for a little while and it’s really hard to heal, so it’s been causing me problems for a little while. Fortunately if I climb on it it’s not going to get too much worse so it’s just dealing with the pain.”
Just like her rivals Mackenzie is enjoying the challenge: “It was a hard round, but I really enjoy climbing in front of this Chinese crowd, they are so sweet and supportive.”
Both Garnbret and Bertone have company in the final with Jennifer Buckley and Zélia Avezou making it through the semi-final while Great Britain’s Emma Edwards and Japan’s Melody Sekikawa will have to fly their country flag on their own.
RESULTS
Click here for the full results
UP NEXT
The women will finish their competition with the final later today. The final round 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.