Last weekend Norway hosted, for the first time ever a stage, of the Lead World Cup. Expectations were understandably high for the competition in Stavanger, considered an important mid-season turning point. Italians Stefano Ghisolfi and Francesco Vettorata qualified for the finals having fallen off the same hold as Jakob Schubert and Adam Ondra, and they were joined in the last round by the two Frenchmen Romain Desgranges and Gautier Supper, Slovenia's Domen Škofic and Germany’s Sebastian Halenke. In the finals it was Supper who climbed higher than the rest, beating Ondra by three holds and Desgranges by four to strengthen his lead in the provisional standings.

Schubert finished fourth, while Ghisolfi finished fifth, his best result this season. Vettorata fell one hold below his teammate to celebrate his best result ever in the Lead World Cup and in doing so he confirmed his sensational second place in last year’s Rock Master. Skofic finished 7th, while and Halenke completed the final ranking in 8th place.

In the women’s competition it was Mina Markovic once again who stole the show, but only just: the Slovenian fell off the same hold as Jessica Pilz, two holds short of the top, but won the event thanks to countback to the Semifinals. Belgium’s Anak Verhoeven finished third and the gap between her and the rest of the field was enormous: 4th placed Jain Kim fell 16 holds lower, while Hélène Janicot, Tjasa Kalan, Risa Ota and Yuka Kobayashi fell even lower still.

text by planetmountain.com

Jessica Pilz use Booster S, Gautier Supper use Instinct VS