Slovenia's Janja Garnbret began her 2026 lead campaign with a controlled qualifying performance at the IFSC Climbing World Cup in Wujiang, with the two-time Olympic champion topping out at the Fenhu Culture and Sports Center alongside the rest of the day's qualifying field.
"I thought qualification was too easy," Garnbret said after Friday's session. "It got hard in maybe the last four or five moves, but I think tomorrow is another day and I think semis and final will be harder, and I hope I can show my best there."
The Slovenian, who has built her career on lead and boulder consistency at the highest level, is the overwhelming favourite for the women's title at Wujiang. Garnbret has won the women's lead season title in seven of the past eight IFSC seasons and is the reigning Olympic champion across the combined format.
The Wujiang event, the second World Cup of the 2026 IFSC calendar after Keqiao's boulder opener, has attracted 223 athletes across 34 nations and five continents. The field includes 103 women and 120 men, with the women's draw rated as one of the deepest in recent World Cup history.
Alongside the route-setting itself, Garnbret used her post-qualifying media to raise a broader scheduling concern.
"Having qualis and semis the same day, it's a very long day," she said. "Today I wake up at 5.45am, then you start warming up around 7am and if you also have semis in the same day, you may not finish until around 11pm; that's a very long day. So, I prefer semis and final on the same day."
The issue is one the IFSC has wrestled with across the calendar reset for the 2026 season. The federation moved to compress qualifying and semi-finals into separate days for the lead season the format Garnbret had asked for in response to athlete welfare feedback. Wujiang's specific scheduling, however, has produced an extended Friday session running into the evening, with the semi-finals at 10:30am Saturday and finals at 7pm.
The men's qualifying delivered a similarly clean run for the favourites, with Sorato Anraku Japan's reigning world champion and 2025 Olympic gold medallist in boulder topping his group, alongside strong showings from Belgian Hannes Van Duysen and Czech Adam Ondra, the 33-year-old who continues to mix elite competition climbing with his outdoor sport-climbing project work.
The Wujiang lead World Cup runs May 8-10 across qualifying (Friday), semi-finals (Saturday morning), and finals (Saturday evening). Italian newcomer Giovanni Placci, who upset several seeded climbers in qualifying, marked himself out as a name to watch.
"I'm very happy, I'm feeling very good," Placci said. "On the wall I felt like I could show my shape. Winter training went very well, and I think I can do great things this year."
The 24-year-old has been quietly climbing into elite contention across the past two seasons and is part of an Italian generation that has used the post-Olympic cycle to push closer to podium consistency.
"I want to do all the World Climbing Series this year and build some confidence for the next few years that will be very important for the Olympics," Placci added. "That's my goal I'm working toward."
The Olympics he is targeting is Los Angeles 2028, with the Wujiang result feeding into early Olympic qualification points and the broader IFSC season ranking.
Broadcast coverage of Saturday's semi-finals and finals is available on the World Climbing YouTube channel, with regional broadcasters Bilibili (China), Eurosport/Discovery+ (Europe), TV Azteca (Mexico), and Globo (Brazil) providing additional coverage.