HIGHAMS’ HIGHLIGHTS: IFSC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS BERN 2023

The 18^th edition of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Championships will commence in Bern, Switzerland, in just a couple of days. Spread across 12 days – from Tuesday 1 to Saturday 12 – the event will award world titles in Boulder, Lead, Speed, and Paraclimbing, also distributing the first batch of Olympic quota places for Paris 2024.

Throughout the IFSC World Cup Series 2023, the IFSC brought interesting facts and figures ahead of each event, in association with statistician Paul Highams. The next set of stats is for the highly anticipated IFSC World Championships Bern 2023, taking place at the PostFinance Arena, with Boulder qualification held in the adjacent Curling Halle.

HIGHLIGHTS

Tokyo 2020 Olympian Sean McColl of Canada will participate in his ninth World Championships, becoming the male athlete with the highest number of participations, and joining Japan’s Noguchi Akiyo at the top of the overall ranking.

Martin Stranik of the Czech Republic, Kim Jain of South Korea, and Petra Klingler of Switzerland will all participate in their eighth World Championships.

NUMBERS

A total of 428 athletes are registered to compete at Bern 2023 – 236 male and 192 female – setting a record for the highest number of climbers participating at a World Championships.

• 252 in Boulder: 139 males, 113 females;
• 261 in Lead: 141 males, 120 females; and
• 143 in Speed: 83 males, 60 females.

Also, the second-highest number of countries will be represented at the event: 54.

The USA and Japan will bring the largest contingent to Switzerland, enlisting 21 athletes each. France and Italy will respectively bring 20 and 19, while Indonesia and Ukraine will have 18 climbers each.

DEBUTS

The following male athletes will make their IFSC debut at the international level:

• Alejo SUTER (ARG);
• Boyan KIROV (BUL);
• León PINO (CHI);
• Joaquin TAPIA (CHI);
• Lovre Čulić (CRO);
• Tulio OBREGON (CHI);
• Emilio FLORES (GUA);
• Azat MAIKOTOV (KAZ);
• Valeriy SERDYUK (KAZ);
• KIM Sangmin (KOR);
• Kenu PUERTA WONG (PER);
• Elliot ERIKSSON (SWE);
• Gabriel KERN (SWE);
• Albin MEYER (SWE);
• Hryhorii ILCHYSHYN (UKR);
• Denys MOZOLEVYCH (UKR);
• Roman VASKO (UKR); and
• Maksym VNUKOV (UKR).

The following female athletes will make their IFSC debut at the international level:

• Matilde CABEZAS (CHI);
• Emilia DAVILA (ECU);
• Fatimah SITI (INA);
• Sarina GHAFFARI (IRI);
• Viktoriya ADAMENKO (KAZ);
• Arina KOZLOVA (KAZ);
• Regina SALAZAR PUGA (MEX);
• Silvana Lourdes LEYTON MATTO (PER);
• Melissa Esther CHEN CHEN (PER)
• Jil COUTURE (SUI);
• Rattankorn SUTHAPHAISAANWITHAYA (THA);
• Sofiia HLADKA (UKR);
• Kseniia HORIELOVA (UKR);
• Anastasiia KOBETS (UKR); and
• Daria TKACHOVA (UKR).

PREVIOUS EVENTS

The previous edition of the IFSC World Championships was held in Moscow, Russia, from 16 to 21 September 2021.

Podiums at the event were as follows:

Men’s Boulder:

1. FUJII Kokoro (JPN)
2. NARASAKI Tomoa (JPN)
3. Manuel CORNU (FRA)

Men’s Lead:

1. Jakob SCHUBERT (AUT)
2. Luka POTOCAR (SLO)
3. Hamish MCARTHUR (GBR)

Men’s Speed:

1. Danyil BOLDYREV (UKR)
2. Erik NOYA CARDONA (ESP)
3. Noah BRATSCHI (USA)

Men’s Combined:

1. Yannick FLOHÉ (GER)
2. Philipp MARTIN (GER)
3. Fedir SAMOILOV (UKR)

Women’s Boulder:

1. Natalia GROSSMAN (USA)
2. Camilla MORONI (ITA)
3. Stasa GEJO (SRB)

Women’s Lead:

1. SEO Chaehyun (KOR)
2. Natalia GROSSMAN (USA)
3. Laura ROGORA (ITA)

Women’s Speed:

1. Natalia KALUCKA (POL)
2. Iuliia KAPLINA (CFR)
3. Aleksandra MIROSLAW (POL)

Women’s Combined:

1. Jessica PILZ (AUT)
2. Mia KRAMPL (SLO)
3. Elnaz REKABI (IRI)

News and updates about the IFSC World Championships Bern 2023 will be available on the official website of the event, on the IFSC event page, and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Douyin, and Weibo.

Sport Climbing stat master Paul Highams will be highlighting his top facts and figures throughout the 2023 season for the IFSC. Brit Highams, based in Chamonix, France, is a climbing superfan with a special talent for picking some stand-out stats for the IFSC event calendar.