European Climbing Championships in Munich: Anger over route building

Lead climb vice European champion Jessica Pilz took bronze in the combined competition at the European Climbing Championships on Wednesday with 180,6 points, thus winning her second medal in Munich. The Slovenian Janja Garnbret won her third gold, winning with 199,9 ahead of her compatriot Mia Krampl (180,9). “I was a little more happy about Lead, I deserved it more. Now there was more anger about building the route than joy about the medal,” said Pilz.

The Lower Austrian, who missed the bouldering final as eighth in the semi-finals in the individual competition, delivered a strong performance on Wednesday in this new Olympic discipline for Paris 2024 and was very satisfied with it. Of course, she then explained that the boulders were also on the easy side. She reached the top on three out of four boulders, once in the first, once in the second and once in the fourth attempt. On the third boulder she managed the second zone, resulting in a total of 80,6 points. Only Garnbret (99,9), the German Hannah Meul (80,9), who ultimately came fourth, and Krampl (80,9) were better at Königsplatz.

Janja Garbret is the outstanding climber of these games. © APA/afp / TOBIAS SCHWARZ

“If you are further behind in bouldering, you can no longer do anything well as a lead specialist. “That was nowhere near the limit,” said Pilz. During the inspection, she saw that there was no place where she didn't know how to do this. “You can tell from the top that there wasn’t a tight spot anywhere. My warm-up in the warm-up hall was more strenuous and difficult than this.” But since she had already achieved her goal with the medal in the lead, she saw the combined medal “as a cool bonus”.

From the Austrian perspective, there was already a little tension about the color of the medal after the second lead climber. Because it was already clear that gold would be out of reach for Pilz (and not just because of his almost infallible Garnbret) because Krampl, who was ahead of her at halftime, reached the top and thus received a full 100 points. Pilz also managed this in a confident manner. Because of the deficit from bouldering, that wasn't enough to overtake Krampl in the end.

“That was a test of the Olympic format, they will still come up with a lot. You have to test it often and run through scenarios so that you know what is best,” explained Pilz. It was the third medal in Munich for Austria's climbers; Nicolai Uznik had become European bouldering champion. On Thursday, Uznik and Jakob Schubert will fight for medals in the combination.

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European Climbing Championships in Munich: Anger over route building

Despite the medal, Jessica Pilz from Austria cannot be completely happy about her success. The anger over a route that was too easy stays with her until after the competition.

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