Climbing ace Schubert leads World Cup climb winner in Innsbruck

World champion climber Jakob Schubert won the climbing final at his home World Cup in Innsbruck on Sunday. The Tyrolean was unbeaten in his Olympic dress rehearsal in his favourite discipline in front of 3,000 home fans and won in rainy conditions ahead of Germany's Alexander Megos and Britain's Toby Roberts. In the women's event, Jessica Bils was fourth after Slovenia's Janja Garnbret won, with Mattia Pozzi seventh.

Schubert had already finished the semi-finals in first place. The 33-year-old local hero reached the top eight final and relentlessly beat the competition's records. It was the six-time world champion's 24th World Cup victory. “It's special because I couldn't get to the track well. It was a battle from the middle of the road. This would never have been possible without having such an audience behind us,” Schubert explained in an interview with ORF.

The Innsbruck player spoke of a “very unpleasant” final. “Many of the holds were surprisingly bad, sometimes much worse than I expected. The contact was not good either. There were some moves where I felt like I was flying and somehow I was still stuck. But the fight was great for Schubert, and this was the last competition before the Olympics in Paris.

For the Bills, who finished third in the semifinals, things didn't go as planned. Like the majority of her rivals, Mostfertler, who lives in Innsbruck, failed to jump on the final track and narrowly missed the podium. For Carinthian Pozzi, it also ended at the same point. “Unfortunately, I hesitated for a long time and I felt like I was starting to get tired. It's annoying that I wasn't able to show what I'm capable of,” Biles said.

Up front, Olympic champion Jarnbret and Japanese world champion Ai Mori put up a great battle. They both reached the top, meaning the Slovenian was in the lead. Garnbret had already won a rock climbing competition in the Tyrolean capital.