IFSC World Cup Jakarta Results

The IFSC Lead World Cup rolled into Jakarta, Indonesia, for the final lead world cup event of the year. Indonesia is a hotbed of speed climbing talent, and in the Men's Speed, local world record holder Kiromal Katibin was beaten to victory not by his usual rival Veddriq Leonardo, but by yet another Indonesian, Aspar Aspar. Long Cao of China was third. In the Women's, Lijuang Den (CHN) beat out the Polish Kalucka sisters to second and third.

In the Lead, both the women's and men's overall titles were still technically up for grabs, but the main narrative was whether competition queen Janja Garnbret (SLO) would return to the indomitable form of the earlier season where she looked unbeatable, after two straight second places to Japan's Ai Mori. Janja is a celebrity in many parts of the world, including Indonesia, where a visit to a local boulder gym involved several hours of signing autographs for local fans who formed a snaking queue that took up all available space in the facility. This storyline was undermined by Mori not attending the last lead event of the year, with several other prominent athletes also skipping the event due to fatigue, the extra travel or simply to prioritise preparation for the upcoming olympic test event of the combined format in Japan.

Nevertheless, Garnbret had her work cut out for her, with a very demanding finals route following a tough semi where she had failed to top and thereby slipped behind Chaeyun Seo (KOR) and Hannah Meul (GER). With just one hold separating places 3–6, Garnbret was imperious with a determined top, putting the pressure right back on Chaeyun Seo, who climbed last. Seo climbed through the difficult section around holds 34 and 35, looking like she would cruise to a top and relegate Garnbret to second, only to fail on a delicate move just below the anchor in what were very hot and humid conditions for the climbers. Garnbret's compatriot, Mia Krampl, held on for third after setting an early high point by climbing first and reaching hold 35+. A fittingly dramatic finish to what has been a compelling spectacle all season long and a deserved overall victory for Janja to add to her already overstuffed trophy cabinet. Seo was second overall, ahead of USA's Natalia Grossman.

In the Men's Lead, Japan continued to crowd out the finals with four out of the eight athletes. But it was local hero Raviandi Ramadhan who stole the crowd's adoration, making the final in his first open world cup event. Unfortunately, he fell relatively low on the finals route to score a 22. Slovenia's Luka Potocar only needed to come 7th or better to secure the overall title, but he too succumbed low down on the route, leaving plenty of drama on the wall. Potocar's effort didn't look too bad when places 2–6 all fell within one hold of each other, as the difficult route combined with the humid conditions caused many slips and others to fail quickly as they were forced to overgrip slippery holds. Japan's Ao Yurikusa finished one hold higher than the rest of the field, to take his first victory in a world cup event, With earlier season results of a 2nd, 4th and 8th, this 20 year old is one to watch next year. Second and third went to Masahiro Higuchi (JPN) and Sebastian Halenke (GER) who were tied in the final and semi, only separated on countback to the qualification rounds.

This result gave the overall title to Potocar, who has been very consistent this year, by a narrow margin over the unlucky Taisei Homma (JPN) who has also been incredibly consistent, but was let down by narrowly missing the final in the last two events of the year (he finished 10th in Edinburgh and 12th in Jakarta). Third went to the dramatically inconsistent Jesse Grupper (USA), who was the only male athlete to record two wins in the season, as well as a third place, but failed to make finals (or even semis) at any other event.