USA’s Natalia Grossman took home her fourth consecutive World Cup victory. Heart-stopping challenges right up to the last block, where the final medals were decided. It was a duel between the American and German Hannah Meul, the 2020 national champion. Both managed to unlock all 4 tops, while the number of attempts was the deciding factor. It only took Grossman five attempts for the ‘zones’ to put the gold medal around her neck: “I don’t know what to say, it’s crazy. I knew it was possible but it was a really tight fight to the end. I think the third boulder was the hardest, but I hoped they would be even harder. The atmosphere here was great, the crowd was very supportive. My goal is to continue like this and finish with another good bouldering performance, and then focus on the lead”. A silver medal that almost tastes like gold for Germany’s Meul, who finished her performance with just one attempt more than the winner: “A dream come true: really, I cannot explain in words how happy I am. I gave everything I had, I really enjoyed climbing these boulders, they were fantastic”. Her name is Zhilu Luo, she comes from China and on her World Cup debut at only 16 years of age she made her way among the ‘bigs’ and won the bronze medal: “I felt good in the qualifiers and semi-finals, but in the finals I felt fatigue, I was tired and my arms were weak, my energy was running out. The boulders were not easy at all, I had to think a lot about all of them, especially the third one”. Lou cried tears of joy as soon as she left the podium and was hugged by her extremely happy coaches. A little bit of Italy was missing in this final, too bad for Camilla Moroni (16th), who could have made the Italian audience dream again.
