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A feast of Para Climbing came to a close in Arco, Italy signing of the IFSC Para Climbing World Cup 2024 Series with the final event of the year.

Seventeen sport classes took to the podium under the Northern Italian sky in the shadow of the limestone cliffs that overlook the historical and popular climbing town.

As always with Para Climbing, many stories played out in the classes, and there was one of redemption for India’s Manikandan Kumar: “Our category I feel is one of the strongest, so you need to be on top form, you have to always bring you’re ‘A’ game to win a gold. Eleven years ago I competed here in Rock Master and I missed out on gold by one place, today I got it, and it is a proud moment.”

Talking about his final climb in the men’s RP2 Kumar said: “It was a good climb. Yesterday I messed up a bit in the qualification but today I made up my mind that I would not make any mistakes, and I didn’t. I did my absolute best, I gave 100% and I’m thrilled to win gold.”

For women’s B2 gold medallist, Austria’s Linda Le Bon, it was about overcoming her climbing weaknesses: “I’m so happy. It’s the first time I was first in qualification and first overall. The route was so technical, I’ve never climbed something like that. I don’t really like technical as I am quite strong so I wasn’t very happy when I found out the route I was climbing, but I timed out and actually thought the top was really possible.”

Also fearing, and conquering, a technical climb was women’s RP2 winner Dina Eivak of Norway: “I felt nervous before the route because I thought it looked very hard and technical, but when I was on the wall, I felt great. I felt secure in my movements, and I was surprised at the end with how I placed my feet. My foot was hurting from yesterday’s qualis, so I was not sure how it would go, but I am happy.”

USA’s Brian Zarzuela took gold in the men’s AU2, and really enjoyed the challenge that Arco and the route setters had laid on for the competitors: “It feels amazing, this one meant a lot. The route was fun. You couldn’t ask for more. It was super technical and made you think a lot. The head wall was harder than we anticipated, but in a great way, it pushed us all to our limits.”

The podiums in Arco were the last act for the 2024 IFSC Para Climbing World Cup season after events in Salt Lake City, USA, and Innsbruck, Austria as well as in the Italian town.