Gold for Erin McNeice (again) in Lead World Cup in Bali
- Monday 5th May 2025
Another weekend, another Lead World Cup comp and another gold for Erin McNeice! Her second in a row.
Erin McNeice’s run of superb competition results continues; this weekend in Bali, Erin stood alone on the top of the podium to collect her second gold in as many weekends! Just for the record, Erin has now podiumed in each of the four last World Cup events winning bronze at the last Boulder event of 2024, bronze again at the first Boulder of this season and then two golds in the two last Lead competitions demonstrating the she’s not only got off-season training bang-on but that her climbing and mental game are also bang on-point!
As in the Wujiang competition last weekend, Erin topped both routes in the qualification as well as the semi-final route to secure her place in the Bali final. Returning to the international scene for her first comp of the year was Ai Mori; she too achieved double tops in the qualification and hence finished joint top with Erin after the qualification round.
Fortune’s switched around a little in the semi’s however, and it was Chaehyun Seo who once again topped the route and shared the top of the standings with Erin after the semifinals. Ai Mori and Laura Rogora finished in third and fourth place in the semi’s however.
Climbing in finals in fifth was Laura Rogora; as usual, Rogora climbed high on the route, but eventually she fell at move 42+. Ai Mori improved on that score with 45, and then climbing second to last, Chaehyun Seo topped the final route. Waiting backstage to climb Erin would have heard the crowd's cheers so would have been well aware that she also needed to top the route to take the win. Despite the immense pressure of the situation, Erin held her nerve and also topped the final route and hence took the gold on count-back. Chaehyun Seo’s silver medal was the 18th of her career.
Talking about her historic second gold, McNeice said: “I can’t believe I actually did it again 🥹
Coming out last, I knew I had to top the route to win. It was nerve-wracking, but I’m so glad I was able to keep it together. It felt so overwhelmingly good clipping the chains. Thank you to the finalists for pushing me. And to @chaehyun.s 🥈 and Ai 🥉. It was an incredibly close fight 🙏🏻.”
With two Lead events already completed of the six to be held this season, Erin McNeice leads the 2025 rankings on 1902.5pts ahead of Chaehyun Seo on 1707.5pts, Laura Rogora on 1220pts and Oceania MacKenzie on 1090pts.
Sorato Anraku, gold medallist in Wujiang, ended qualification in Bali in joint top alongside Satone Yoshida. Last weekend’s bronze medallist, Alberto Gines Lopez, again finished in contention in third place just ahead of Wujiang’s silver medallist Neo Suzuki. Yoshida, Gines Lopez and Suzuki held their game together in the semi-finals, ending that round in first, third and fourth respectively. Sorato Anraki, however, suffered the same fate as Toby Roberts had done in Wujiang, ending the semis in Bali out of the running for the finals and down in 16th place! With Anraku out of the running, his place in the top standings after the semis was taken by Yannick Flohe. Further down in 7th and 8th place were Muhammad Rizky Syahrafli Simatupang and Max Bertone, both climbers making finals for the first time in their competition careers.
Once the dust had settled after the finals, it was Satone Yoshida who held his nerve to retain his top-ranked position in the Bali comp; Max Bertone finished in second for his first-ever podium finish, whilst Alberto Gines Lopez collected his second bronze of the season.
Satone Yoshida now stands at the top of the 2025 rankings on 1610pts; Alberto Gines Lopez and Neo Suziki follow on 1380 and 100pts respectively.
Speed
Speed climbers were also in action at Bali. American Sam Watson smashed his own world record twice to take the men’s gold with 4.64secs - a new world record - whilst Aleksandra Miroslaw took gold with 6.37secs.
European Cup
The European Cup in Brussels was also held over the weekend, with Emma Edwards from GB Climbing taking the gold in the women’s Boulder whilst Fae MacDougall finished in 13th place. Jack MacDougall was the highest-placing British male athlete finishing the event in fourth place just off the podium. Nathan Whaley and Fred Williams finished in 43rd and joint 50th respectively.