Dream week for Shauna Coxsey: two bronze medals and Olympic quota place
Shauna Coxsey wins the bronze medal in the Combined Final of the IFSC World Championships 2019. Photo: Band of Birds
After coming third in the Bouldering event at the IFSC World Championships 2019 in Hachioji, Japan, Shauna Coxsey performed spectacularly to cement her success by breaking the British Speed Climbing record and winning another bronze medal in the Combined event. Shauna also qualified for a quota place to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and, after winning bronze in the Olympic-style Combined event, hopes are high for further success next year.
Shauna Coxsey has finished the IFSC World Championships at Hachioji, Japan with her first-ever World Championship podiums, two bronze medals, a new national speed record and an Olympic quota place.
Shauna secured her second bronze medal of the IFSC World Championships by finishing in third place of the Combined Finals behind Japan’s Akiyo Noguchi who took the silver medal and Slovenia’s Janja Garnbret who won gold. She had already secured an Olympic quota place in Sunday’s combined qualification round which took some of the pressure off her entering into Tuesday’s final in the Esforta Arena in Hachioji, Japan.
Sheffield-based Coxsey’s final campaign got off to an explosive start, beating Japan’s Futaba Ito and Miho Nonaka to reach the final of the Speed round, recording a new personal best and new British record time of 9.141 seconds in the process.
This was a huge 6/10 of a second faster than her previous personal best and is made all the more remarkable by the fact she only took up training for the discipline a year ago. Shauna lost out in the final round to Speed World Champion Aleksandra Miroslaw of Poland.
Moving onto the bouldering round, Coxsey came third in this discipline with one top and two zones in a final round which has only three boulders. On reflection, the top moves of problem two proved important to the final standings, as Shauna faltered whereas Garnbret and Noguchi managed to find a top to the problem and a way above Coxsey in the rankings for this round.
By the time Shauna came back out on stage in the Lead competition, a podium place was guaranteed. However, a top from Garnbret and a 40+ from Noguchi meant that Shauna would have had to put in her best ever performance in a senior lead competition to move above the bronze medal spot. After a punishing seven days of competitive climbing over an 11-day period, this was ultimately too far for Shauna. Initially Coxsey was scored 28+ but she was marked down to 20 after having being judged to have accidentally stepped on a bolt and her bronze medal place was confirmed.
When the dust settles on this World Championship, Shauna Coxsey will be able to look back with enormous pride having secured her first-ever World Championship medals, raced to a personal best in a Speed Climbing and most importantly, secured her quota place for next year’s Olympic Games.
For now, Shauna will regroup and begin to plan for Tokyo 2020. For GB Climbing, attention turns to the Youth World Championships in Arco as well as seeking to support more of the senior team in securing a place at Tokyo 2020 at the next Olympic qualification event in Toulouse which will start on 28 November.
WATCH: The replay of the Women's Combined Final at the IFSC World Championships 2019
WATCH: The replay of the Men's Combined Final at the IFSC World Championships 2019
Shauna is a recipient of the Medal Support Plan, administered by UK Sport and delivered by English Institute of Sport in partnership with the British Mountaineering Council (BMC). Shauna is also supported by Adidas, Red Bull, Entre-Prises Climbing Walls, Aldi, Dreams, The Climbing Hangar, Friction Labs, Rhino Skin and Hard Bar.
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The GB Climbing Team is run by the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) who is the national governing body and IFSC-recognised international federation for Sport Climbing in the UK. The BMC leads a network of dedicated individuals to support the GB Climbing Team and nurture the development of new talent. The BMC manages the GB Climbing Teams, Talent and Performance pathways, national and international competition events in the UK, and proudly promotes the future of our sport.