Bern 2026: Anraku again, and a first gold for Mackenzie

Bern 2026: Anraku again, and a first gold for Mackenzie

The World Climbing Series reached Bern on May 22 for the fourth stop of the 2026 bouldering season. Sorato Anraku won the men’s, his second World Climbing Series gold of the year after Keqiao. With Janja Garnbret not starting, Oceania Mackenzie took the women’s for her first.

The men’s final

The question in Bern was who would challenge Anraku, and most of the candidates answered by not reaching the final. Dohyun Lee and Tomoa Narasaki, third and fifth in the world standings, both went out in the semi, finishing 15th and 18th. That left Mejdi Schalck as the only finalist within range: Anraku closed with a near-perfect 99.7, Schalck second on 84.3.

Behind them, Hannes Van Duysen won a tight battle for bronze, edging Sohta Amagasa 69.2 to 68.4. Then a cliff: a thirty-point gap to fifth. The remaining four finalists were well off the pace, and three of them sit outside our top ten: Colin Duffy (17th), Adi Bark (18th) and Maximillian Milne (24th). Paul Jenft, seventh on the day, is the exception at ninth.

The women’s final

In Garnbret’s absence the women’s final produced a first World Climbing Series winner in Oceania Mackenzie, who closed on 74.5. Annie Sanders had looked the strongest climber of the round in the semi-final, topping it on 99.6, but could not repeat it on the day and finished third (60.0). Between them, Erin McNeice took silver (69.0), her first medal of the season.

Climbing at her home event, Sofya Yokoyama reached the Bern semi-final and is the biggest climber into the women’s top twenty, up from 44th to 15th, though on a single event and within a tightly packed band of the table.

Liptovský Mikuláš, and the tier gap

Between Keqiao and Bern, the Europe Series stopped in Liptovský Mikuláš on May 16, where Matteo Reusa and Jakoba Rauter won. Rauter, the 16-year-old we flagged after her Kaunas semi-final, took a first senior title, though the model still reads a Tier-2 result as a thin signal, and her ranking reflects that rather than the win alone.

With Kaunas and Liptovský Mikuláš now both in the fit, the men’s Europe Series route-grade offset has resolved firmly negative: −2.07 logits, 95% credible interval [−2.89, −1.24], about −249 ELO below a World Cup route. After Keqiao alone the interval had brushed zero; a second weak-field event has settled it. The women’s offset sits at −1.22 logits ([−2.05, −0.39], ≈ −147 ELO).

At the top of the standings little has moved: Anraku leads the men clear of the field, with Schalck up to second on his Bern result; Garnbret holds the women’s lead despite sitting Bern out. Full tables are on the men’s and women’s 2026 ranking pages.