Victory in Innsbruck

Jakob Schubert wins lead climbing at home World Cup

Alexander Megos, Jakob Schubert and Toby Roberts (from left to right)(Bild: APA/EXPA/JOHANN GRODER)

Climbing world champion Jakob Schubert won the lead climbing final at the home World Cup in Innsbruck on Sunday. The Tyrolean was unbeatable at his Olympic dress rehearsal in his favorite discipline in front of 3,000 home fans and won in rainy conditions ahead of the German Alexander Megos and the Brit Toby Roberts. In the women's competition, Jessica Pilz finished fourth after Slovenia's Janja Garnbret won, while Mattea Pötzi came seventh.

Schubert had already finished the semi-final in first place. The 33-year-old local hero was therefore the last to go into the final of the top eight and climbed unstoppably past the best times of the competition. It was the six-time World Champion's 24th World Cup victory. "It's something special because I didn't get into the route well. It was such a fight from the halfway point. That would never have been possible without an audience like that behind me," explained Schubert in the ORF interview.

"Extremely unpleasant"
The Innsbruck native spoke of an "extremely unpleasant" final. "Many holds were simply surprisingly bad, sometimes much worse than I expected. The friction wasn't that good either. There were a few moves where I had the feeling that I was going to fly and somehow I got stuck. But the fight was great." For Schubert, it was the last competition before the Olympic Games in Paris.

For Pilz, who finished third in the semi-finals, things didn't go quite as planned. Like the majority of her competitors, the Mostviertel native, who lives in Innsbruck, failed a jump element on the final route and narrowly missed out on the podium. Pötzi from Carinthia also finished in the same place. "Unfortunately, I hesitated too long and felt that I was getting tired. It's annoying that I couldn't show what I'm capable of," said Pilz.

Jessica Pilz(Bild: GEPA)

At the top, Olympic champion Garnbret and Japanese world champion Ai Mori put up a great fight. Both made it to the top, giving the Slovenian the edge. Garnbret had already won the bouldering competition in the Tyrolean capital.