Women’s series contenders safely through
Chasing a World Climbing Series Boulder title for 2026, the three main players for the accolade are all through to the semi-final in Salt Lake City, USA
Great Britain’s Erin McNeice holds a small advantage in the series rankings but is being chased by Australia’s Oce Mackenzie and USA’s Annie Sanders – and all of them made it safely through to the next stage after qualification.
With 94.5pts, McNeice progressed in fourth from the 55 women who started the round with Mackenzie just behind in fifth with 94.2pts and Sanders 12th with 79.7pts.
Leading the way was Oriane Bertone in first with 109.8pts, and although the French climber has an outside shot at the series title, with her three rivals through to the semi-finals and therefore able to pick up more points as the competition goes on, she could see her chance start to fade away. But her chance for a gold medal is firmly in her sights.
Fresh from an Asian Games win, China’s Yuetong Zhang seems to be in good form and was second overall on 109.5pts. Japan’s Melody Sekikawa was third with 94.6pts.
Either side of series contender Sanders was Slovenia’s Jenny Buckley in 11th and teammate Cloe Coscoy in 13th.
Despite making it through with a score of 84.6pts, Buckly believes the scorecard is a bit deceiving: “I'm happy with how I'm climbing and happy with how I feel on the wall, but I don't think the results show that. But its qualification and I won't overthink it. The job is done and I'll see what happens on Sunday.”
Sunday will be the women’s semi-final and final rounds, so Buckley and all the other women will have a day off to prepare. Speaking about the free day Buckley said: “I’ll watch the boys tomorrow and hopefully get inspired by them, but I'll be in bed early and try to get ready for Sunday.”
With Salt Lake City being the last competition of the season in Boulder, Buckley reflecting on her 2026: “I'm not really happy with how my season has gone but that's not a big deal, I've still got one more comp to show my best.”
HOME COMFORTS FOR COSCOY
With 79.5pts, Coscoy made it through to the next round like Buckley, but also wasn’t fully pleased with her season either like the Slovenian: “I think the season so far has been hard for me having all the events back-to-back but having a break and having my friends in town it feels a bit more relaxed, they don't care how I do you, we just hang out and they support me and I want to do well. I mean, for me, I think this is going to be the best comp of the season.”
Speaking about her qualification Coscoy said: “The first and the fifth boulders weren't too hard, I guess. The first I felt a bit shaky, a bit nervous, so I’m happy I managed to get it done, and then the rest of the round was pretty physical.”
When the climbers look at the boulders, they often know which will play to their strengths and which ones will take a little bit more to get done, and Coscoy picked out one in particular she knew she had in her locker: “The fifth boulder was my really my style. It's the kind of thing I do in warm up. It's very physical, very decisive, there's a lot of running and jumping and it just feels like sports. I knew it was one for me.”
Making it through in the final positions of 23rd and 24th were USA’s Nekaia Sanders and France’s Lily Abriat. Sanders especially will be hoping to move up the order and make a final in front of her home crowd to finish off the 2026 Boulder season.
RESULTS
Women's Boulder: https://wclmb.hopp.to/slc26wbr
NEXT UP
The men will have their semi-final and final tomorrow with the women closing the competition, and Boulder series, with their semi-final and final on Sunday.
News and updates about the World Climbing Series Salt Lake City 2026 will be available on the World Climbing 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.
