IFSC World Championships: Shauna Coxsey qualifies for Tokyo 2020 quota place
Shauna dominated in the lead. Photo: GB Climbing / Band of Birds
In the culmination of a phenomenal week of action at the IFSC World Championships in Hachioji, Japan, GB Climbing’s Shauna Coxsey has qualified for a Tokyo 2020 quota place at the Combined Event.
The IFSC World Championships in Hachioji, Japan, has seen the world's best climbers battle it out in an intense week of climbing: first in the World Championships for the individual disciplines of Boulder, Lead and Speed, then in the Combined Event.
The Combined Event decides which climbers will qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, and consists of a qualifying round followed by a final this Tuesday.
Shauna Coxsey produced a season’s best performance in Bouldering and Lead climbing, which means that she enters Tuesday’s final seeded first, where seven climbers will qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
As Japan has four athletes in the final, and each country is allocated a maximum quota of two climbers per gender through to the Games, this means that all other nationalities in the final plus 9th-placed Brooke Raboutou of the United States have qualified before the final has taken place, including Coxsey.
Shauna’s performance peaked at the perfect time. Whilst posting a Speed time well below her personal best, she then went on to produce a perfect four ‘flash’ (completing a boulder on the first attempt) bouldering round and easily her best lead performance of the season, finishing third in the lead round and securing first place overall.
It was the first time the qualification round for the new combined format has run, just a year out from the Tokyo 2020 Games where Sport Climbing will make its debut so there was excitement around the arena as the new competition format got underway.
Shauna’s campaign got off to a slow start with a Speed Climbing time way below her personal best and she was placed 14th after the first discipline. However, as Coxsey got underway in her preferred discipline of Bouldering, she took full control of the competition with a stunning 4 top, 4 flash round which moved her up to second place in the rankings ahead of the final discipline, Lead Climbing.
With tension building around the arena as climbers completed the qualification campaign, Coxsey came out and posted easily her best performance of the season on the rope and finished third. A route-reading error from Garnbret gave Coxsey the top spot in the qualification round moving into the Combined final which takes place on Tuesday.
WATCH: Hachioji 2019 Combined Women Qualification Highlights
This fantastic result follows Shauna winning bronze in the World Championship earlier in the week.
Whilst Coxsey and her coaching team turn their attention towards Tokyo 2020, GB Climbing will be supporting other team members in their journey for Olympic qualification. The next opportunity for Olympic qualification will be at the end of November in Toulouse where the top 20 ranked climbers in the world (excluding those who have qualified in Hachioji) will be invited to compete for a 6 further Olympic spots per gender.
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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