Carolina Gradaschi earns a place in the semi-finals. The top 24 male and female climbers will return to the wall on Monday, 20 July

The opening day of competition at the World Climbing Youth Championships 2026 in Arco was entirely devoted to the Under 17 Lead qualifiers, which were temporarily suspended for approximately one hour due to a heavy rain shower.

On the historic Rock Master walls at the Climbing Stadium – FASI Federal Technical Centre, the young athletes faced technically demanding routes featuring intense, selective and highly interesting challenges set by the route-setting team.

In the men’s competition, Japan’s Kazuki Nakata moved to the top of the standings as the only athlete to achieve two tops across the qualifying routes. His teammates Taketo Saiki and Haku Ishida finished behind him, completing an all-Japanese top three.

For the Italian team, Sam Da Pozzo and Riccardo Rizzoli finished in 34th and 35th place respectively, while Andrea Locatelli concluded his competition in 42nd position.

A Japanese athlete also led the women’s standings, with Arisa Hayashi taking first place ahead of China’s Yijing Lu and Meini Li.

There was good news for the Italian team as Italian Youth Lead Champion Carolina Gradaschi secured her place in the semi-finals, finishing the qualification round in 22nd position. The other Italian athletes, Chiara Franceschi and Giorgia Zanetti, placed 42nd and 56th respectively.

The top 24 male and 24 female Lead specialists will return to the walls of the Climbing Stadium for the semi-finals on Monday, 20 July, at 9:00 a.m.

Italian Lead National Team coach Luca Bana commented on the athletes’ performances:

“Our athletes gave everything they had, and Carolina secured a place in the semi-finals. The routes were certainly complex and, for some of the athletes, this was their first experience in a competition of this level, so emotion also played its part. It was a great and closely contested competition, featuring many strong climbers and an extremely high standard. There is still a lot of hard work ahead of us, but there is also plenty of room for improvement.”

Following the excitement of the opening day, fans of ropes and harnesses can look forward to another intense day of action tomorrow, with the Under 19 Lead qualifiers taking centre stage.