USA\u2019s Annie Sanders set the pace for all to follow on the final boulder of the women\u2019s final, and no one could reach the heights she had set taking the third Boulder gold of her career at the World Climbing Series in Prague.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Great Britain\u2019s Erin McNeice fought her way to yet another podium spot taking silver while China\u2019s Yuetong Zhang took bronze in her first Boulder final appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coming out second after a low finish in the semi-final, Sanders made her mark straight out of the blocks as the only climber to top boulder one. Every other climber could only flash the zone. The thing was, Sanders knew she was going to make a fast start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe first one really suited me, like super well,\u201d said Sanders, \u201cWhen I went out to observation I thought \u2018oh yeah, I\u2019m going to do this boulder\u2019 and I went out and executed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few more climbers topped boulder two while Sanders could only zone. McNeice was one, but she took 10 attempts which put her on the back foot. Zhang meanwhile was still looking for her first top in a final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seven of the eight final climbers topped boulder three with Sanders, McNeice and Japan\u2019s Melody Sekikawa flashing. Zhang took two attempts, but she was now on the board with a top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every scenario was possible because of the order and the points in play on the final boulder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sekikawa was first out and a flash to zone put her in the medal positions. A Sanders flash put her in the top spot with 84.3pts, and all both of them could then do was sit and wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Climber after climber came and went.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zhang flashed to move into second behind Sanders and ahead of Sekikawa. Another climber who just had to wait on others to see what their fate would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Australia\u2019s Oce Mackenzie was in with a shot of gold but failed to zone as missed her shot at yet another podium. But now things were starting to become a little clearer \u2013 well, for gold, but not the silver or bronze. Mackenzie\u2019s fail meant a guaranteed gold for Sanders as she was the only climber in with a mathematical chance of overhauling the American\u2019s total score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After her win Sanders said: \u201cIt feels pretty incredible, I\u2019m still trying to process it. The crowd was super supportive and it was pretty electric.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Japan\u2019s Mao Nakamura and France\u2019s Z\u00e9lia Avezou had a shot at the podium. Nakamura unfortunately could only unlock the boulder when her time was up, but on attempts she might have just missed out anyway. Avezou had a shot at silver, but like Mackenzie and Nakamura didn\u2019t take it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now it was down to McNeice. The maths was simple. Zone got her nothing. A top got her silver, and meant Sekikawa slipping off the podium at the very last moment with Zhang safe in the knowledge she had a guaranteed medal \u2013 even if she didn\u2019t know what colour yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As is the way these day\u2019s with McNeice, she kept her cool and flashed the boulder for 84.1pts for silver ahead of Zhang who had 69.7pts, but it was a bronze medal at her first attempt at a final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sekikawa was fourth with 69.5pts, Mackenzie fifth with 59.5pts, Nakamura was sixth with 54.6pts and Avezou seventh with 44.7pts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eighth was Japan\u2019s Anon Matsufuji who couldn\u2019t quite get to grips with the final boulderstaking three zones for 29.7pts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The World Climbing Series finishes tonight with the lead semi-final and final for the men and women \u2013 and Sanders is one climber who will be looking to double up on a Prague podium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
USA\u2019s Annie Sanders set the pace for all to follow on the final boulder of the women\u2019s final,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[406,102],"class_list":["post-13524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-boulder","tag-sport-climbing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Annie-Sanders-.jpg",1920,1080,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Annie-Sanders--150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Annie-Sanders--300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Annie-Sanders--768x432.jpg",640,360,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Annie-Sanders--1024x576.jpg",640,360,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Annie-Sanders--1536x864.jpg",1536,864,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Annie-Sanders-.jpg",1920,1080,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Annie-Sanders--825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Annie-Sanders--590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Annie-Sanders-.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13526,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13524\/revisions\/13526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}