British paraclimber Abbie Robinson won her fourth world title in today's final at the IFSC Paraclimbing World Championships in Bern, Switzerland. Climbing in the B2 visual impairment category, Abbie topped her final route to take the win.
GB Paraclimbing's Richard Slocock won silver in the men's B2 category, Martha Evans claimed bronze in the women's RP3 final and Lux Losey Sail also took bronze in the men's B3 group.
© IFSC
In 2018, Abbie won gold at her first IFSC Paraclimbing World Cup in Briançon, France, and became world champion in Innsbruck in the same year.
Abbie retained her world title in 2019 and 2021 at the IFSC Paraclimbing World Championships in Briançon and Moscow respectively. She has won every World Cup round that she has entered, with five golds to her name.
Seven British Paraclimbing athletes qualified for this afternoon's finals: Jesse Dufton B1, Rich Slocock B2, Lux Losey Sail B3, Sebastian Musson AU2, Abbie Robinson B2, Joanna Newton AL-2, Martha Evans RP3.
Over 200 paraclimbing athletes took part in the event in Bern — the highest number of participants in an IFSC paraclimbing competition to date.
Paraclimbing is currently under consideration by the IOC as a potential Paralympic sport to join the programme in Los Angeles 2028. The decision will be announced in October this year.
GB Paraclimbing finalist results:
Abbie Robinson B2 1st
Richard Slocock B2 2nd
Martha Evans RP3 3rd
Lux Losey Sail B3 3rd
Jesse Dufton 4th B1
Sebastian Musson AU2 4th
Joanna Newton AL-2 4th
More information on paraclimbing competitions on the IFSC website, UK Paraclimbing Collective and the BMC website.
Comments
Awesome effort Abbie
Watched all of the finals on YouTube (without having to subscribe) this evening: time well spent. Well done to all those who took part.
Nice one! Seems like a very impressive effort by everyone across lots of categories.
I've not watched any of the paraclimbing so was wondering if someone who has could answer this question. Does anyone know why in the main photo it appears like Abbie is both toproping and leading? I recall reading in a Jesse Dufton interview that most (all?) paraclimbing comps are done on toprope, so that bit makes sense, mainly wondering what the bit of rope going downwards from her harness is for?
Two ropes as the wall is so steep, if the lower clipped rope didn't hold the climber close to the wall there would be dangerous swings for a low fall. As it was there were some interesting 'tangles' in the falls.
If you have never watched I'd strongly recommend it.... it's the most interesting and most competitively attended paraclimbing final I've seen (para categories get merged when numbers are low). I know a few of the athletes so was very pleased for the full free to view coverage (don't panic about the 6 hours... the actual climbing starts at about 30 minutes in and finishes around the 4 hour mark). The climbing is on four routes which range from F6c to F8a+
https://www.youtube.com/live/RwQbZNGSUZA?feature=share
Thanks for the info. I'll try and find time to give it a watch.