In front of a packed out Place du Mont Blanc in Chamonix, South Korea’s Seo Chaehyun and Japan’s Anraku Sorato both won the sixth IFSC Lead World Cup gold medals of their careers.

The final act of the IFSC World Cup Chamonix 2025 was to crown the two Asian climbers after they both excelled in the respective competitions.

At the beginning of the season, Seo took gold with Great Britain’s Erin McNeice, and they were joined by USA’s Annie Sanders. In Chamonix the trio once again visited the podium together, but this time in a different order.

It was Seo who stood alone on the top step with a 44+ climb, and after said: *“*I’m super happy and I’m just lost for words. I can’t believe it.

“I won my first gold medal here and it felt amazing to climb again in front of such a huge crowd. They are so supportive, and I love to climb here.”

When asked about the final route Seo said: “Maybe the lower part was about performance and the top was super slippery now as it’s a little bit humid, but I fought hard and thankfully got some success.”

Seo’s sixth success came just ahead of Sanders who took silver with a 43+ climb. The American now has three bronze medals and the one silver, and for sure is creeping towards the top step for a full Lead World Cup set.

Speaking about her silver Sanders said: “I’m satisfied with second, but I’m not satisfied with my performance. I felt I could have climbed a little bit better; I made a few mistakes that were hard to recover from.”

Sanders has been addressing her ‘mistakes’ and is getting better with the experience she is accumulating: “I’ve been keeping time in the back of my head recently because in the past few years I would time out and it would cost me some places, so it’s definitely something I have been working on.”

With a bronze medal on hold 42+, McNeice has podiumed in every Lead World Cup so far in 2025 with two golds and two bronze medals, but she knows it’s not an easy task to keep up the form: “I’m happy. Usually the top three are always quite close and it’s a tough battle to win, but I had a lot of fun and I think I climbed well.”

There was return to action for USA’s Brooke Raboutou, but the fairytale medal return fell just short as she finished in fourth on hold 40+, but after so long away from competition it is a healthy return to the fold.

In fifth was France’s Camille Pouget on hold 34+ just ahead of teammate Zélia Avezou in sixth on hold 34.

With a first final appearance, Spain’s Gelia Macià Martín scored a personal best finish in seventh on hold 23+, and Japan’s Tanii Natsuki was eighth on hold 13+.

Full women’s Lead results here

Japan’s Anraku proved once again he is a true all-rounder when it comes to climbing.

While others looked at the LA28 announcement that climbing would have three sets of medals – one per discipline – and started to think about focussing, you can see that Anraku would love to go for both Boulder and Lead.

After winning gold in Wujiang at the start of the season, Anraku had a little blip in his results with a 16^th and ninth place finish in the following two – but the Boulder Series winner is back on top, and with a top.

Anraku was the only climber to top the final route to secure his win and after said: “I’m happy to come back and get the victory. I missed finals in Bali and Innsbruck, then I trained a lot after Innsbruck as I really wanted to win in Chamonix.

“I loved the crowd here and I think I shouted for the first time ever in a competition on the wall.”

One climber that could have displaced Anraku in the golden hotseat was Spain’s Alberto Ginés López who is yet to win a World Cup gold, and in Chamonix he was possibly the closest he has ever been to one.

With Anraku topping the route, Ginés López had to top to win on countback, and he came within fingertips as he fell jumping to the final hold. That hand slip meant a silver medal for the Spaniard.

Anraku knew he had gotten away with one, saying: “I will be in good shape for Madrid [at the next event]. I want to win again. But Alberto is in great shape, and he will be hard to beat. I think he is actually climbing better than me at the moment.”

Talking after his silver Ginés López said: “I’m happy because I improved from third to second from the last comps, but I’m still looking for that gold. I really want it.”

Just one move away from winning, Ginés López knew that gold was just within reach, and that was ultimately what stopped him achieving the feat: “I think I saw the gold too close. I already knew Sorato had topped the route so I knew I had to, and the last two or three moves I could see the gold; I just have to control my feelings more for the next comp.”

While Anraku and Ginés López have visited the World Cup podium before, the bronze medallist who joined them hasn’t – until now. Italy’s Filip Schenk won his first ever World Cup medal in Chamonix falling at the same spot as the Spanish climber.

Trying to gather his thoughts after his first medal Schenk said: “It’s crazy. I can’t really believe it. I think I will need some time to realise it fully. Doing it here in Chamonix as well is really crazy.”

It was only the third final for Schenk, and for some climbers it can be a bit of a nervous time, especially with the size of the crowd in Chamonix, but the Italian thought otherwise: “I think I was quite relaxed as I was already happy with my climbing, so even without the result I was happy, but the podium is of course much better.”

Just off the podium in fourth was Japan’s Yoshida Satone who climbed to hold 39+. Last year’s winner Colin Duffy from the USA ended his defence in fifth on hold 38+ with Switzerland’s Jonas Utelli just behind in sixth on hold 36.

In seventh was Slovenia’s Luka Potocar on hold 31 with Japan’s Omata Shion in eighth on hold 29+.

Full men’s Lead results here

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, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.