European Championships: Day 8 Men’s Boulder & Lead Combined
- Friday 19th August 2022
Schubert and Ondra battle for supremacy in Men’s B&L Combined on Day 8 at Euros… [spoiler alert] Schubert wins and takes his first medal.
The last day of climbing at the Munich European Championships saw the eight highest ranking male climbers battling for the final set of medals; the Men’s B&L Combined. Following the individual Men’s Boulder and Lead finals, won by Nicolai Uznik and Adam Ondra respectively as previously reported, the final Boulder and Lead scores for each climber were added together. Leading the field into the Combined final was Adam Ondra (CZE) on 1690 points, significantly ahead on points of the rest of the field thanks to his win in Lead and third place in Boulder. Joining Ondra in the Combined final, and with barely a wafer-thin crimp between them, were Luka Potocar (SLO), Alberto Gines Lopez and Nicolai Uznik on 1045.00, 1041.67 and 1021.00 points respectively. Also through to the Combined Final were Jakob Schubert (AUT), Filip Schenk (ITA), Sam Avezou (FRA) and Mejdi Schalck. With the exception of Schubert, all three of these later climbers were boulder specialists.
Combined Boulder Round
M1 – a slabby coordination bloc – eased the competitors into the final somewhat; Gines Lopez got the top on his third attempt, Schalck, Schubert, Uznik and Ondra all topped on their second attempt and Avezou alone flashed it. M2 – an overhanging burly campus-style problem with a hard body-tension finish – defeated everyone except Schubert. M3 – another overhanging monster that had 3D climbing in a chimney-style start – saw something of a reversal in the fortunes of the finalists; Schalck, Schenk, Gines Lopez and Potocar all topped prior to Ondra coming out onto the mats. In a truly remarkable display of composed climbing Ondra utterly destroyed M3 flashing it easily and showing his absolute mastery of such climbing!
M4 – a combination slab problem to a funky shouldery finish – was set to be the final arbitrator. Once again the finalists were decisively separated. Schalck, Avezou, Schubert and Uznik all topped typically taking two or three attempts each. Gines Lopez and Potocar were shut down totally so it was all down to Ondra to provide the final piece in the zigsaw. Although Ondra hasn’t enjoyed the best of results in the past on slabby problems – especially those with combination moves – he’s worked hard on his game knowing the importance of being able to do them. Climbing last, Ondra held the tricky initial combination move which protected the final jump to an undercut half-moon volume which thoughtfully came with a small jib. The other successful finalists had all jumped into a straight left-handed mantle whilst catching the final hold in a gaston position then used their body tension to hold the hideous position that resulted. Ondra however totally ‘broke the beta’ by using a hideously high left-foot rock-over which enabled him to cruise into the lead at the end of the Boulder round with yet another astonishing flash!
Although in the lead after the Boulder round Ondra’s lead on 80.7 points was minuscule; Avezou was in 2nd on 80.6, Schalck in 3rd on 80.5 and Schubert in 4th on 80.5. The stage was well and truly set for an epic finish which would all hang on the Lead results. Given their strong performances in the Boulder round however, Ondra and Schubert had given themselves the very best possible chance going forward whereas the other Lead specialists Gines Lopez and Luka Potocar on 61.7 and 36.8pts respectively had the proverbial mountain to climb!
Combined Lead Round
Throwing the Lead finalists something of a curved ball, the setters had avoided the main overhanging, mid-height volume for the Men’s Lead route setting instead a snaking route which traversed right to left under the massive mid-height bulge. By all accounts, the setters had also not ‘backed-off’ on the difficult of the lower wall either so the men would be already feeling the pressure when they hit a spectacular foot-off campus traverse section immediately prior to the start of the scoring holds.
As expected the boulder specialist had a hard time on the route; Uznik, Schalck and Avezou all fell relatively early from the middle of the route and scored limited points; 1.1, 15.1 and 40.1 points respectively.
Climbing third, Schenk established what looked like an excellent high-point falling going for the penultimate hold, an effort that gave him 90.1 points. Next out was Schubert. Thus far denied any medals in the European Championships, Schubert climbed with a real purpose shaking out before attacking the final moves on the headwall. Moving beyond Scheck highpoint, Schubert controlled the penultimate hold and then steadied himself momentarily before unleashing himself for the final hold which he held for a split second before plummeting down in another massive fall.
Not for the first time on the big stage, Schubert had posted a very challenging result worth 95.1points. Only Ondra could beat Schubert and he would need to top the route to get the win. Gines Lopez and Potocar climbed next and both pushed hard onto the final headwall but both fell below Schubert’s high point. It was, as often the case, all down to the final climber, in this case Ondra, to decide the medals. Remember too that under the new scoring system, a low fall off the route for Ondra would be punished with a low points allocation; simply, he had to hold his nerve and top the route to win.
Not surprisingly Ondra looked a little nervous as he climbed; even making what looked like a couple of small errors. Nevertheless, Ondra progressed towards the headwall and started shaking out before the final moves. He looked pumped however and fell off going for the penultimate move as had Schenk previously, crucially for him, however, Ondra had fallen off a move higher than Gines Lopez.
Schubert, therefore, pipped Ondra to the Combined Gold and took his first medal of the Euros. Ondra finished second completing the medal set from the Euro’s with a Bronze (Boulder), Silver (Combined) and Gold (Lead); an excellent and very consistent performance which will hopefully be some compensation for his poor results in the Tokyo Olympics and, more importantly, encourage him to continue with comps going forward. Olympic Champion Albert Gines Lopez took the Bronze.