By: P.T., STA
Janja Garnbret triumphed in the women’s bouldering competition on Sunday to win her second title at European Championships in sport climbing in Munich after taking the title in lead on Saturday.
Considering her performance this far, the 23-year-old Slovenian Olympic and world champion is well set to win her third gold in Munich with the Olympic combined discipline due here on Wednesday. She already won the European title in the discipline in 2017.
Despite injuring her right-hand index finger in the lead final, Garnbret made an excellent showing in the boulder semis-finals and finals, dominating the event throughout.
In the semis she was the only one to solve all four boulder challenges and the only to finish the route on the second boulder.
In the finals she failed to solve the first challenge, reaching the second zone to place third after the first bolder. However, she reached the top of the next two boulders on first attempts to take the lead and it was clear the title was hears even before she attempted the fourth bolder, which like ker rivals she failed to tackle.
“The final didn’t go according to my plans. It started pretty bad with the first boulder, which I failed to solve. I didn’t know how many did, I thought everyone did except for me,” Garnbret commented for RTV Slovenija.
However, she stayed positive: “I enjoyed myself, didn’t panic in the least. I have quite some competition experience and I know anything can happen in the end.
“I did great on the next two boulders, reached the top on first attempt. The last boulder was rather difficult, I know I could have climbed it but it wasn’t until the last ten seconds that I figured out the right sequence. Still, I’m super happy,” said Garnbret.
Home favourite Hannah Meul won silver and French Oriane Bertone won bronze.