Gold’s for McNeice, Seo and Anraku in Wujiang
- Tuesday 29th April 2025
In a rare result, GB climber Erin McNeice and Chaehyun Seo (KOR) were both awarded gold in the first IFSC Lead competition of the season in Wujiang over the weekend; Sorato Anruka took Gold in the men’s event.
Women’s
Erin McNeice, Chaehyun Seo and Annie Sanders dominated the top of the women’s leader board in both the qualification and semi-finals in Wujiang, the first IFSC Lead event of the 2025 season. All three athletes topped both routes in the qualifiers and then topped the semi-final route as well; Laura Rogora joined them with a top in the semi-finals too. Oceania MacKenzie was only a hair’s breadth behind.
In such situations, consistency and nerve, as much as anything else, were likely to pay dividends in the final. Whilst Rogora, MacKenzie and Sanders couldn’t maintain the pace, and all fell as they approached the headwall, McNeice and Seo held their game together and pushed on beyond Sanders’ high point. Remarkably, both Erin and Chaehyun fell off at exactly the same point – move 41; even more remarkably, however, was that their climbing time was exactly equal (4:26mins) as well. As neither climbing nor time separated Erin and Chaehyun during all three rounds at Wujiang, both were awarded a gold; Annie Sanders, gold-medallist in the Boulder event in Keqiao the weekend previous, had to settle for bronze in the Lead.
In a joint interview afterwards, Erin said: “I purposely tried to climb it quickly, but obviously not quick enough. It was a lot of fun, though and I really enjoyed the fight.”
Erin’s gold medal was her first ever Lead medal, her first World Cup gold and the best Lead result by a British woman ever. She leaves Wujiang as the first British female climber to podium in both IFSC Boulder and Lead World Cup events. Erin has now podiumed in each of the last three IFSC World Cups, having taken two bronzes in the last two Boulder events and gold in Lead this weekend. Erin has been consistent across both events for some time, and her recent success points to clear preparation and training in the off-season, firstly in the 2023/24 off-season and then again over the last winter.
Also speaking after the final, Seo said: “It’s my first win in four years and I can’t believe I won with Erin. It’s the first time to win together with someone else on time as well.”
For Seo, it was her fifth World Cup gold with her last coming in 2019, again in China in Xiamen. Her last Lead gold was at the 2021 Lead World Championships.
Interestingly, it isn’t the first time that two climbers have been awarded gold when finishing at the top of the rankings in a competition; the last occasion was also at Wujiang in 2018 when the final was cancelled due to rain effecting the then outdoor Lead event and the semi-final standings were taken and golds awarded to both Janja Garnbret and Kim Jain. The IFSC have written a report on when medals have been shared in the past – click here to read that.
Men’s
It was tops galore in the men’s qualification round with no less than 10 men all taking tops on both routes; Sorato Anraku, Sam Avezou, Max Bertone, Alberto Gines Lopez, Luka Potocar, Toby Roberts, Neo Suziki, Hannes Van Duysen and Satone Yoshida – all climbers ending the qualification in joint first!
Sorato Anraku, Alberto Gines Lopez and and Filip Schenik all finished the semi’s falling off at move 49+. Anraku and Gines Lopez ended in joint first, with Filip Schenik ranked 3rd on countback. Falling off lower on the route cost Toby Roberts dearly and he ended up 15th and so missed the finals. It’ll be little consolation for Roberts, but a number of other climbers (Max Bertone and Sam Avezou, who topped the qualification route, also fell at the same point in the semi’s showing how little room there is for error on these routes. In total, no less than 13 climbers all fell within a move or two in the semi’s at or about move 40-41.
Maintaining his climbing composure, Soratu Anraku took the men’s gold with Neo Suzuki and Toyko Olympic Champion Alberto Gines Lopez followed with silver and bronze respectively. Having placed second to Toby Roberts in Paris 2024, Anraku is looking like he’s on a roll again, having won two golds in two events – Boulder in Keqiao last weekend and Lead in Wujiang. That’s one hell of a way to open the 2025 season; as a result, he’s now in an excellent position in the rankings should he try to take the 2025 Double again.
Speaking after the final, Soratu said: “I went back to Japan after Keqiao and only trained once in Lead, so I wasn’t expecting to win this event. I’m not aiming for the overall World Cup Series, but I’m aiming to win every event. Then I guess the overall will take care of itself. But I go one event at a time.”
Neo Suziki’s silver-placed finish was also noteworthy given there was an appeal regarding the belaying on his first climb, which meant the Japanese climber had to climb again. As it was, on Suziki’s second climb, his high point of 40+ was enough for silver. Impressively, it was Suziki’s first ever World Cup final. Alberto Gines Lope’s bronze is a welcome return to form for the Spanish climber, having faced something of a drought with regards to competition successes since his victory in Japan back in 2021.