The final IFSC Speed World Cup of the 2025 series ended with two first time medallists taking both men’s and women’s honours with the home crowd spurring on Chu Shouhong and Meng Shixue to gold.

The last time Chu and Meng were on the world stage in Guiyang was at the IFSC Youth World Championships last year. Both won gold. In Guiyang a year later, yet again the same result, but this time at the World Cup.

Chu won the men’s competition showing speed, consistency and calmness for an 18-year-old as others around him were falling.

Both Sam Watson and Kiromal Katibin went out in the round of 16 with Watson’s victor, Germany’s Leander Carmanns making it all the way through to the medal races.

Ukraine’s Yaroslav Tkach broke the European record in qualification and was feeling confident to do it again in finals. He followed through on the prediction in the semi-final with a 4.86 seconds, however, he hadn’t factored in Chu who beat him with a 4.84.

Japan’s Omasa Ryo faced off with Carmanns in the semi-final and coming out on top after the German made a false start. The medal races were set. Carmanns vs Tkach and Chu vs Omasa – with the Japanese climber the only previous World Cup medal winner.

In the bronze medal race Carmanns took bronze with a 4.98 seconds compared to Tkach’s 5.11.

In the gold medal race, Chu kept the best until last posting a personal best time of 4.79 to beat Omasa who tapped out at 4.99. There was a first-time winner in Guiyang and two first time medallists.

After his win Chu said: “I’m happy to be a champion here and it’s down to all the hard work I put in in training. I’m so happy for this.

“There was a lot of applause from the home crowd, and it meant a lot of pressure for me, but it also pushed me on, so it helped me as well.”

Full men’s results can be found here

KATIBIN WINS FIRST SPEED SERIES

Katibin and Watson were fighting for the series title in Guiyang, and just like the season, swings and surprises kept everyone on their toes.

Katibin had four podiums from the first four events and held the lead as Watson made an uncharacteristic false start in a qualification round earlier in the season for very little points.

As Katibin went out in the round of 16 in Guiyang, the door had been opened for Watson. However, it closed just as quickly as in the very next race Watson also exited the event.

It meant Katibin won the series with 3945 pts and Watson was second with 3629 pts.

The climber who did benefit from a good show in Guiyang was Omasa as his silver meant he leapt up the overall into third with 3410 pts overtaking China’s Long Jianguo who finished with 3315 pts.

Before Guiyang Meng had never won a World Cup medal, but you would never have known as she came through a quarter-final against the world champion Desak Dewi and USA’s multiple World Cup winner Emma Hunt in the semi-final.

In her semi-final Meng really had to pull out all the stops to beat Hunt and duly obliged with a personal best time of 6.29s to Hunt’s 6.35s. It meant Meng would race for gold and Hunt for bronze.

The other semi-final had another home climber, Zhou Yafei, up against South Korea’s Jeong Jimin who was chasing her first World Cup gold. With a 6.42s, Jeong had a golden shot with Zhou tapping at 6.51s.

The race for bronze had Hunt take advantage of a slip and an eventual fall from Zhou to secure a third bronze of her career for the American. She finished her run in 6.44s.

With a personal best under her belt from the semi-final, Meng went close again with a 6.30s which edged out Jeong who had a finish time of 6.36s. Meng had a knack of coming through close races in Guiyang, and she did it again to secure her first ever medal. For Jeong, it was her third silver.

Speaking about her win Meng said: “It’s a very exciting day to win on the World Cup stage. It’s a very memorable day for me. There was a big and passionate crowd here in Guiyang, so I tried to do my best for them.”

Full women’s results can be found here

EMMA HUNT BECOMES FIRST US FEMALE CLIMBER TO WIN SPEED TITLE

The women’s series title was won by Hunt who scored a total of 3,795 points. Her total was thanks to consistently high finishes. She competed at five of the six events but never finished outside of the top four with one gold, one silver and two bronze medals to her name.

In second was Zhou with 3,495 points. Her total came from all six events with her best result a silver medal in Bali, Indonesia.

Zhou overtook Dewi at the final stop in Guiyang as the Indonesian climber could only amass a total of 3,390 points. Dewi won a gold and a silver from her five appearances.

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.