Lead qualification in Seoul saw the start of the IFSC Climbing World Championships 2025
The Climbing World Championships got underway after the Para Climbers completed their qualification on day one and two, and the Lead discipline was first up in Seoul, South Korea.
It may be the World Championships, but the top of the Lead qualification rankings had an Olympic feel about it as both Janja Garnbret and Alberto Ginés López – the first two climbing Olympic champions from Tokyo 2020 – occupied the first positions.
Both Slovenian Garnbret and Spaniard Ginés López were the only climbers to top both of the qualification routes in a strong start on their quest for a world title.
WOMEN'S LEAD QUALIFICATION
The only other climber to top a route in the women’s category was Erin McNeice who progressed to the semi-final in second. The British climber has been on good form all season and is carrying that through to the World Championships.
Third was another climber on good 2025 form – USA’s Annie Sanders. The young American has been flying the flag for her country all year in both Boulder and Lead with the likes of Brooke Raboutou and Natalia Grossman taking time out for different reasons, and Sanders has been doing a great job at it.
Sitting in fifth was China’s Zhang Yuetong who not only progressed to the semi-final but learned what she needs to change to go further in the competition: “I think the first route I hadn’t really prepared that well. I don’t think I warmed up enough and then I was climbing too fast, so I didn’t really recover during the climb. I probably should have taken about another 10 minutes to get ready. The second route was more my style though, so that was ok.”
Just behind Zhang in sixth was a crowd favourite - Seo Chaehyun. Seo was the highest of three South Koreans to make it into the semi-final alongside Kim Jain and Kim Chaeyeong who were in joint-twelfth.
The country with the most representation in the semi-final will be Japan who have five climbers progressing from qualification with Nakagawa Ryu the final climber through in 24th position.
Although making it through to the next round is the goal for the majority of the 70 women who started the event, for Spain’s Geila Macià Martín her goals had to change: “My qualification was quite bad. I had an injury last week and I couldn’t really train all week leading into this event.
“Yesterday I wasn’t going to climb, but I thought I would try and I’m happy I did. I knew if I didn’t do this event, even if I was injured, I would be at home regretting it.”
Macià Martín eventually finished in 32nd position.
MEN'S LEAD QUALIFICATION
There were more tops in the men’s qualification round with seven climbers registering the score. Ginés López had two for first with the other six successful on just one.
In joint-second, Suzuki Neo and Yoshida Satone led six Japanese climbers into the semi-final with the help of their tops, with Anraku Sorato another making a top and securing a semi-final spot.
Indonesia’s Putra Tri Ramadani made his first final in Koper in the last World Cup of the Lead season, and he has continued the good form to take a top and book his semi-final spot in fourth.
Sam Avezou climbed to the top of route one and secured his semi-final spot in fifth, and the final climber to make a top was Slovenia’s Luka Potocar who needed it to counteract a relatively low fall in his other attempt.
There were four South Korean climbers who made it through with Lee Dohyun in seventh, Noh Hyunseung in 21st, Cho Seungwoon in 23rd, and most notably Kwon Kibeom who finished in 24th as the penultimate climber of the day and pushing Olympic champion Toby Roberts out of the final semi-final spot.
The first climber out in the men’s competition was Canada’s Victor Baudrand. Finishing in 52nd out of the 75 starters, Baudrand enjoyed his experience in Seoul: “I was the first one out and I was pretty nervous. I was on route two and I saw those holds and thought you need good conditions and good friction and in the morning it was fresh, and no one had climbed it before so they felt sticky, and I think that helped me get a little higher than I would have expected to do.”
Heading out first to a lead competition has mixed responses from climbers, but for Baudrand it was a good thing: “Watching other people sometimes puts additional pressure, but here it was just me and the route. No one else’s beta, just mine, and that made for a really fun fight.”
Speaking about his qualification round in general Baudrand said: “You always finish a round thinking you could have done more, but in general I’m taking the positives and moving on and taking it into the next comp. Overall it was a great experience, and also the venue and crowd were great, so it was easy to feel comfortable.”
Full men's Lead qualification results can be found here
Both the women's and men's Lead semi-finals and finals will take place on Friday 26 September.
News and updates about the event will be available on the IFSC 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.
