D2: Men’s lead qualifications
You could feel the tension behind the lead wall. But still, no drama: all the favorites will be in semi-final on Saturday.
« Yesterday, the atmosphere was pretty calm during women’s lead qualifications. Today, we could feel the tension, it was impressive », tells us Corentin Le Goff. The French coach spent his day watching the lead’s first round and confirms how electric was the atmosphere.
The reason of all this tension? Mainly the routes profiles, which go harder and harder. « It was crazy. In the last part of the wall, everybody was stressed because they could fall at any time. This is the type of routes where you have to leave your comfort zone, because the difficult sections are located near the top, and you can only make the difference on a few holds », explains Corentin Le Goff. Even Domen Skofic – the current leader of the World Cup general ranking – fought hard and fell in his 2nd route. Such a big fight for the Slovenian, one of the favorites, which illustrates what we saw on the wall this morning.
Finally, more fear than harm for the favorites: Romain Desgranges, Sebastian Halenke (GER), Sean McColl (CAN), Adam Ondra (CZE), Keichiiro Korenaga (JPN) and Jakob Schubert (AUT) topped both of their routes and will be competing in semi-finals.
What about Gautier? Gautier Supper takes the 13th rank of the qualifications after he actually toped his two route! « But unfortunately, he put his foot at some point on bolt – by mistake – and got downgraded. Luckily there was still room for him ». He gets his ticket for the semi-final. Thomas Joannes, the third Frenchman competing in lead, is also in the top 26 (finishing 19th). « Our three musketeers will be in semi-final, the job is done » concludes, with a smile, the French coach.
