First on the Wall at Štvanice
The scoreboard settled on an unfamiliar name at the top. In the men's Lead qualification at the World Climbing Series in Prague, Indonesia's Putra Tri Ramadani finished first, ahead of a field that held four of the world's five leading Lead climbers. He did it not with a single decisive ascent but with two measured ones, on a day when the routes gave almost nothing away.
How it was decided. Tops were rare. In the men's competition tops were tough to come by. So tough that only one climber made one top — that was Japan's Sorato Anraku. Anraku led a strong Japanese contingent that included Satone Yoshida and Neo Suzuki. Although Anraku had the only top, and was leading a team that includes Satone Yoshida and Neo Suzuki, he was not first at the end of the round. That honour went to Indonesia's Putra Tri Ramadani — Anraku was second overall. Across two routes, consistency outweighed a single high point. Tri Ramadani surprised all the favorites in the qualification round of lead and thanks to two consistent performances, narrowly edged out Japan's Sorato Anraku to claim first place.
The order behind him read like a Lead world ranking. Making up the top five was Spain's Alberto Ginés López who was third, sandwiched between Tri Ramadani and Anraku above and Suzuki and Yoshida below. In joint fifth with Yoshida was Italy's Giovanni Placchi. The setting sharpened the result. The lead qualification was the first lead results of the season. No athlete had a lead ranking yet. The slate was clean. For the lead discipline, that meant the Prague results carried more weight per event than they would mid-season.
A Step in the Trajectory
The performance read against a short but rising record. Before the Prague series, he had reached the finals of the World Climbing Series in Koper, Slovenia, on September 5–6, 2025. However, Putra failed to win a medal at that time, finishing sixth with a score of 40+. Prague was his second appearance in a World Climbing Series final. To lead qualification here, in front of a full house at a new venue, marked a clear advance on that Koper result and on everything before it.
What followed only underlined the point. Carrying his qualification form through the weekend, Putra Tri Ramadani won the gold medal in the men's lead event at the World Climbing Series Prague 2026 with a score of 43, defeating a strong field of international climbers. He became the first Indonesian climber ever to win a World Cup event in a discipline other than speed climbing.
For a nation known on the Speed wall, the top of a Lead sheet was new ground. Putra Tri Ramadani reached it first, and quietly.
