In the last Lead competitions at the Seoul Mountain Climbing & Culture Center for the 2023 edition, it seemed the extra experience of International competition paid off for the young climbers.

Slovenia’s Copar, by her own admission, had fallen a little short of her high standards in the women’s Lead competition but rose to the occasion when it came to the final. That rise was all the way to the top of the route, and the only climber to do so.

Due to her semi-final performance, Copar was the second climber out for her attempt and had to sit and wait to be confirmed as the winner.

Copar said: “I feel amazing. It’s crazy, I’m so happy. I was able to actually fight the route because the quails and semis route was a little bit tricky and I didn’t really enjoy the climbing, but this route I enjoyed climbing it. 

“I was super nervous because it’s a competition and you have to wait until everyone has done the route and after me there were a lot of strong girls who had to climb, and thankfully it was enough.”

Either side of Copar on the podium were Japanese teammates Takao Tomona and Ogura Sana. Takao took silver reaching hold 34+, narrowly ahead of Ogura on 34.

Just missing out on a medal was the first climber out, Germany’s Anna Maria Apel ahead of two USA’s Climbers, Olivia Ma in fifth and Norah Chi in sixth.

The final two climbers were Japan’s Kuzuu Mashiro in seventh and Israel’s Ruby Danziger eighth.

Full U20 women’s results here

Photo: Dimitris Tosidis/IFSC

In a similar situation, Belgium’s Van Duysen had to wait and see his opponents attempts before he was confirmed ahead of two Japanese climbers.  

Belgium’s first ever male IFSC World Cup medallist, Van Duysen, took on a difficult route and reached hold 19+ for his gold. 

Van Duysen said: “I’m really relieved. It was quite stressful that someone was going to do the move that I couldn’t so it was really stressful sitting and waiting. But now, it’s pretty cool. Amazing. Already from the beginning the route was much harder than usual. The holds were so slopey, and it’s really humid here so not sticky at all and super hard moves.”

The next five climbers all came unstuck on hold 18+ so countback to the semi-finals came into play.

It meant that Japan’s Suzuki Neo took silver and Murashita Zento took bronze.

In fourth was Bulgaria’s Slav Kirov, Germany’s Yannick Nagel was fifth and Spain’s Guillermo Peinado Franganillo sixth. 

Japan’s Sekiguchi Junta was seventh reaching hold 17+ and Canada’s Matthew Rodriguez was eighth.

Full U20 men’s results here

Photo: Dimitris Tosidis/IFSC

The action continues in Seoul tomorrow with the men’s and women’s Under 18 Boulder qualifications.