The Para Climbers kicked off the IFSC Climbing and Para Climbing World Championships Seoul 2025 with the first of two qualification days for the Lead climbers.

Out in the open air of the Olympic Park in Seoul, South Korea, the competition got underway for 13 of the Para Climbing sport classes as the athletes tried to keep themselves in with a shot of winning a World Championships medal.

B SPORT CLASSES

All of the men and women in the visually impaired B classes competed on the first day of competition with the finals line-ups set for B1, B2 and B3.

In the men’s B1, Japan’s Aita Sho has long been the one to beat and it looks that way again in Seoul. He leads a four-man group into the final from five qualification starters.

The women’s B1 is again lead by a Japanese climber as Aoki Hiromi holds the top spot from the three qualifiers. Aoki, Italy’s Nadia Bredice and Slovenia’s Tanja Glusic are all now guaranteed a medal, and the final climb will be to decide the colours.

The men’s B2 also have their medallists set with a positional podium fight for the final.

Romania’s Razvan Nedu progressed in first, and after his climb said: “I’m happy. They were nice routes. Very powerful which I like. I’ve been training really hard for this event, and I got hyped by doing my first 8a on the kilter board.”

Looking ahead to the final Nedu said: “I just want to climb as best as I can and if I do that then whatever comes will come.”

Nedu will battle it out with Japanese teammates Hamanoue Fumiya and Ejiri Motohiro.

Four women started the B2 qualification and all four are still in with a shot of a podium as the two third place competitors – Germany’s Luisa Grube and France’s Melissa Cesarone could not be separated.

USA’s Seneida Biendarra was on top form – literally – topping both qualification routes and will be favourite going into the final on that form.

Four climbers will contest the men’s B3 final with Romania’s Cosmin Florin Candoi the man in first and the only climber to top a route in the category.

The women’s B3 looks to have set up a bumper final with three climbers tied for first topping both routes.

USA’s Phoebe Barkan and Lin Postin, and France’s Elsa Boutel Menard are in joint first position with Japan’s Mika Maeoka joining them in the final. Both Maeoka and Romania’s Ionela Dragan topped route 1, but the Japanese climbers superior climb edged Dragan out of the final in fifth spot.

RP SPORT CLASSES

All of the women’s RP classes competed on day one with just the RP1 men contesting their qualification.

There will be five climbers fighting for medals in the women’s RP1 with a three-way tie for third in qualification. USA’s Melissa Ruiz was first ahead of the Netherlands’ Eva Mol with Switzerland’s Doris Rohner, and the USA pair Hannah Zook and Jackie Stewart together in third.

Talking through her qualification round Ruiz said: “The first route was one of the best routes I’ve ever climbed in a competition, and I got the furthest I have done on a competition wall like this with the overhang. I really enjoyed that one.

“The second route was hard. Like really hard. But I got a lot higher than I thought I would. The bottom section had a lot of slopers, which I don’t mind, but it just took out a lot of my energy.”

Austria’s Jasmin Plank headed the RP2 with a top helping her score. Plank seemed the stronger climber from the category in qualification, but finals is a new day when anything can happen. Four climbers will contest that final from the eight that started.

Eight women also started the RP3 with tops from USA’s Nat Vorel and Japan’s Yoshida Momoko helping them progress as part of the group of four that will now contest the medals.

The men’s RP1 was the biggest category of the day with six progressing from 19 starters. France’s current world champion Aloïs Pottier progressed in first hoping to defend the title he won in Bern in 2023.

AU SPORT CLASSES

The women featured on day one in the AU classes with France’s Solenne Piret progressing in first place in the AU2 and Germany’s Rosalie Schaupert first in the AU3 category.

Schaupert was the first of three climbers through from five qualification starters with Piret leading a top four out of 13 who began the competition in her category. The AU3 climbers were closely matched in their scores, but Piret’s rivals have a bit if catching up to do when it comes to fighting for the podium places and trying to knock Piret from her top spot.

AL SPORT CLASSES

For the AL categories, only the women’s AL2 competed on day one with France’s Lucie Jarrige once again the climber to beat. The French champion leads the four women into the final from the 12 qualification competitors.

The remaining sport classes will compete tomorrow and finish qualification for the Para Climbing World Championships ahead of two days of finals in the KSPO Dome on 24 and 25 September.