After the IFSC World Cup season kicked off at the new location of Keqiao last month, the second comp of the season saw the athletes returning to a familiar venue, the home of US competition climbing - Salt Lake City.

With the Olympic Qualifying Series just eight days away, the Salt Lake City World Cup didn't have a full-strength start-list, as some of the athletes aiming to secure Olympic Qualification elected to skip the competition in order to avoid fatigue, and reduce travel time and jet lag.

Nonetheless, Salt Lake provided some wonderfully set boulders, gave us a sense of which of the women might be able to challenge Janja in Paris, and provided a glimpse at the battle that may well decide the order of the men's Olympic medals.

After a bumper first event for the GB squad in Keqiao - with four Brits in the semis, and two in the finals - to better that tally in Salt Lake was going to be a big ask, especially with Max Milne, Erin McNiece, and Molly Thompson-Smith electing to skip the event. 

And yet, despite only fielding four athletes, three made the semi-finals.

Lucy Garlick, still just seventeen years of age, made her first semi-finals in just her second senior Boulder World Cup competition - eventually finishing in fifteenth place. On the men's side, Dayan Akhtar showed impressive consistency by reaching his second World Cup semi-final in as many events.

Olympian-to-be Toby Roberts came painstakingly close to reaching successive finals, missing out due to the number of attempts it took him to reach the zone on the second boulder of the semi-final.

In the men's side of the World Cup, Jakob Schubert, Bronze medallist in Tokyo, was the only climber in the semi-final to top three boulders, with the next four climbers finishing on two tops and four zones, whilst the eight athletes that followed finished on two tops with three zones.

Separation based largely on zones and attempts to zones, rather than tops, continued to be the theme of the final, with five of the six male finalists topping just one boulder.

Jakob gave us a classic moment early on in the final, on M1. After struggling to work out the dynamic and co-ordinated moves through the lower section of the boulder, he finally stuck the move with just under two minutes left on the clock. He then ran down the clock on the balancey upper section, eventually falling off the final hold with just over a minute remaining.

After another failed attempt, and a foot slip whilst preparing for the low dyno, Jakob launched into the move with just twenty-four seconds on the clock. He cruised through the lower section, somehow sped through the same delicate and precarious beta he'd used previously on the upper section, and reached the final hold - and matched - with just one second left on the clock. 

Had he been a second later, he would have finished in sixth position. As it was, that 'buzzer-beater' - and the three zones he managed across the following three boulders - landed him third place, his first World Cup boulder podium since 2021, also in Salt Lake City, also in May, also ahead of an Olympic games.

Meichi Narasaki took the silver medal, with his flash of M3 - a boulder that is well worth a watch - enough to move him above Jakob due to attempts to top, whilst Sohta Amagasa came in fourth, despite having the same number of tops and zones as Meichi and Jakob.

Far and away the best of the bunch, however, was Sorato Anraku. He took M1 down in just two attempts, his flash of the zone on M2 was as good as anyone could manage, his top of M3 set him ahead of the field, and his top of M4 secured the Gold medal position, as well as the current overall top spot in the Boulder World Cup rankings.

Whilst Sorato was dominant in the final, Jakob was similarly supreme in the semi-final, and with both Tomoa Narasaki and Toby Roberts showing impressive consistency across the first two World Cups of the season - and perhaps falling victim to a Salt Lake semi-final that saw too much compression amongst the top fourteen athletes - it's exciting to think about just how tight the battle for the top spot in Paris could be.

Whilst Salt Lake gave us a sense of just how competitive the battle for the men's Gold is likely to be in Paris, the absence of Janja Garnbret in the women's comp meant that we couldn't make any direct comparisons at the top of the women's field.

That being said, the women's competition still gave us a good indication of exactly who the top competitors are likely to be in Paris, with Natalia Grossman, Oriane Bertone, and Oceania Mackenzie - all of whom have already qualified for the Olympics - competing for the Salt Lake crown, along with last year's overall Boulder World Cup bronze medallist, Brooke Raboutou, who will compete for a ticket to Paris at the Olympic Qualifier Series in just over a week's time. 

Natalia was head and shoulders above the competition in the semi-finals, the only athlete to top all four boulders, whilst the next closest competitor, Oriane, managed two tops and four zones. 

When it came to the final, it was a closer affair, and with a surprise competitor - Naïlé Meignan of France - the athlete who stuck most closely to Natalia's heels. Having been kept away from the senior circuit since 2021 due to injury, it was great to see Naïlé back climbing again, and to see her carrying some of her form from Youth competitions into the senior circuit.

Whilst four of the six finalists flashed W1, and both Naïlé and Oriane were able to top W2 to stay in touch of Natalia - who flashed both boulders - it was Naïlé who was able to match Natalia's three tops over the first three boulders, to keep the pressure on going into the final boulder. 

It all came down to the final boulder, a head-height slab traverse featuring dual-tex holds and committing moves - all feet, no hands. Getting to the zone alone seemed like the crux of the boulder. First up, Naïlé struggled to land the dynamic leap across the dual-tex, but eventually managed to secure the zone, and move into first place, with just eight seconds left on the clock.

Oceanie Mackenzie was out next. A quick flash of the boulder, with barely a moment of anxiety, and she was done. Maybe the slab wasn't as hard as it first seemed?

Next out was Brooke. Four minutes of wild falls later, she left without a zone. Out came Mao Nakamura. No luck, no zone. Oceania's flash was becoming more impressive with every passing failed attempt - how would Oriane and Natalia fare?

Needing a top to challenge for the Gold medal, Oriane came out confident. She was a fraction away from finding the balance point on her first attempt. On her second attempt, she found it with ease, and - after a moment's hesitation on the upper section - she found the final hold, and moved into first place.

So, one athlete still to go, with Natalia needing a zone to take top spot, on a boulder that had seen two athletes fail to make the zone.

Natalia's first attempt wasn't close. Her second attempt was even further away. Maybe her knee, strapped up since injuring it earlier in the competiton, was causing her issues? Her third attempt was no closer. On her fourth attempt she slipped on the easy intro section, before she'd even reached the difficult climbing. Was the pressure getting to her?

Fifth attempt, maybe a little closer. Sixth attempt, definitely better. Seventh attempt - there it is! Balance found, Natalia was unable to finish the final boulder, but the zone, along with her flashes of boulders one, two, and three was enough, and the Gold medal was secured.

Oriane finished in second place, with Naïlé Meignan finishing in third, in her very first senior World Cup. With three tops and four zones apiece, it was attempts to tops and zones that separated the top three of a close final, in which all four of the boulders were flashed, yet nobody climbed all four boulders.

The next World Cup stop will be Innsbruck at the end of June, but with the Olympic Qualifying Series kicking off in nine days time, with stops in both Shanghai and Budapest, there's plenty of high stakes competition climbing on the horizon.

Boulder Women

Boulder Men