Neo Suzuki (left) and Janja Garnbret (Photo World Climbing)
Janja Garnbret once again wowed her home crowd in Slovenia taking her fourth Koper gold in a row with Japan’s Neo Suzuki taking the men’s win for his third of the year at the World Climbing Series Koper.
All eyes were on Garnbret, as they always are in Koper, and once again she did not disappoint getting over a potential golden slip to fight her way up the women’s final route.
With USA’s Brooke Raboutou setting a high point of 33 and Garnbret the last climber out, the Slovenian climbing phenom had a moment where she reached for the winning hold and slipped down, managing to catch the slip, keeping her composure, and then moving on to fight her way up to hold 42+ for the win.
Speaking after Garnbret said: “It feels amazing to compete in front of the home crowd. I’m not competing much but every time I step out onto the field, I feel I am in competition mode.
“The route was fantastic, but I have to say I was fighting with the humidity. I was sliding off every hold. First there was a scary moment on the yellow pocket, I had zero chalk, but also the upper purple part was super humid, so I am glad I came off at that point.”
The Garnbret gold is her 33rd in the Lead discipline and her 51st overall.
Raboutou’s hold 33 gave her the silver medal and the first of 2026 in her second Lead comp after Chamonix. She was last on the Lead podium in Madrid in 2025 when she took bronze.
No stranger to a Lead podium, South Korea’s Chaehyun Seo won bronze on hold 32+ for her fourth of the year, she has also taken silver making it five medals from five 2026 World Climbing Series comps.
USA’s Annie Sanders also reached hold 32+ but missed out on the podium finishing in fourth due to countback to the semi-final.
Rosa Rekar was visibly disappointed falling from the wall on hold 30 in front of her home crowd, that was only enough for fifth, and she would have been wanting more with such a supportive arena.
Austria’s Jessica Pilz was sixth on hold 27 and France’s Zélia Avezou was seventh on hold 25. Both climbers had a short wait to do their climbs as a technical issue with the stadium clocks delayed their starts.
In her first final, South Korea’s Chaeyeong Kim was eighth on hold 13+ but will take heart from a good showing in Slovenia.
Japan’s Neo Suzuki was the best on a hard men’s route which caught out the final eight low on the wall.
Finishing the semis in third, Suzuki moved past all before him to set a high point of 33+, just below the head wall. That meant he was guaranteed a medal with South Korea’s Dohyun Lee and Italy’s Filip Schenk the only climbers to come.
Lee and Schenk however stumbled at the same point on the route moving past a clipping point at hold 23 before falling as they tried to rectify the mistake. Neither could, which meant Suzuki took gold.
After his win Suzuki said: “I’m so happy because I’ve been training really hard since Chamonix.
“The route was maybe my style, but it was very hard and kept getting harder and harder.”
The win for Suzuki was his third of the year after Wujiang and Innsbruck and extends his lead in the 2026 series overall going into the final Lead competition of the year in Santiago, Chile in late October.
Suzuki’s teammate Satone Yoshida was the second out in the final and eventually took silver for his first podium of the year reaching hold 30+, returning to a Lead podium he last visited at the World Championships Seoul in 2025.
Indonesia’s Putra Tri Ramadani took bronze on hold 28+ to continue his good form in 2026 which has given him his first gold, and Koper is his second successive third place finish showing great consistency in the European stage of the season.
Sam Avezou was fourth on hold 23+, clipping and reaching to the next hold that Lee and Schenk missed. With hold 23 scores, Schenk finished fifth and Lee was sixth.
Italy’s Giovanni Placci was seventh on hold 22 and first-time finalist Chanjin Jung was eighth also on hold 22. The South Korean Youth world champion made the final in his first outing in the World Climbing Series, so there is surely more to come from the young climber.
