The hot sun beat down on the hat-wearing packed crowd at the Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue north of Paris as the Olympic sport climbing events opened with its new two-discipline format. Twenty of the best sport climbers in the world took a shot at four challenging problems in the men’s bouldering semifinal to earn half of the points needed to advance to the bouldering and lead combined final. Here are the highlights.
Nearly half of the climbers had difficulty topping any of the four boulders. No climber had completed any boulder until Austria’s Jakob Schubert, who was the 18th climber to start, topped the first boulder. This launched him into the top half of the rankings and got the ball rolling for other competitors to top subsequent problems.
Japan’s two climbers, Sorato Anraku and Tomoa Narasaki dominated the field. Seventeen-year-old Anraku, the youngest climber in the field, wowed the crowd as he took on the first boulder with ease and topped it with two minutes left to spare. He breezed through the second boulder with even more proficiency to complete it in only one minute. Out of the 25 possible points for each boulder, Anraku earned 24.9 and 25 points his first two boulders respectively, setting him up for a strong performance. He heads into the lead semifinal as the top boulder competitor with 69 points awarded out of the possible 100.
“I’m happy that I topped two boulders [the first two], but I was frustrated that I couldn’t do boulder four,” Anraku said. His goal is to compete well in the lead semifinal to qualify for the bouldering and lead combined final.
“Then I want to become the king of climbing,” Anraku added.
The boulders were so difficult that Anraku was the only climber to complete two boulders. The climbers ranked in the top six of the semifinal were the only ones to top at least one problem.
“We never know before,” Sam Avezou of France said of seeing the tough boulders for the first time when he stepped out to compete. “Sometimes the route setters overcook it a bit, sometimes [they] undercook it…These same route setters sometimes do it a bit easier, sometimes a bit harder, so we never know what we are going to face.”
Anraku’s fellow countryman, Narasaki, finished as the next closest competitor with 54.4 points. He was one of the four climbers able to top the final boulder, which involved a tricky foot transition to step over a small foothold and reach the last hold.
Great Britain’s Toby Roberts closely trailed Narasaki with a final score of 54.1 points. The top European competitor got close to topping the unbeatable third boulder but eventually fell off. He later topped the final boulder to finish in third.
“The boulders were really sort of crazy,” Roberts said. “A very hard round – normally it wouldn’t be that hard. I’m not sure of the exact result, but I can’t imagine there have been too many tops. So yeah, a tough round but I’m here for it.”
Host country favorite Avezou also had an impressive performance. The Frenchman finished fourth after solid attempts at the first two boulders and a strong top of the final boulder.
Americans Colin Duffy and Jesse Grupper finished 11th and 18th respectively. The two have a chance to better their ranking and qualify for the combined final during the lead semifinal on August 7. The top eight climbers with the highest combined scores from the boulder and lead competitions will advance to the final.
Men’s boulder semifinal (Top 8):
Sorato Anraku (JPN): 69 points
Tomoa Narasaki (JPN): 54.4 points
Toby Roberts (GBR): 54.1 points
Sam Avezou (FRA): 49.2 points
Adam Ondra (CZE): 48.7 points
Jakob Schubert (AUT): 44.7 points
Hannes Van Duysen (BEL): 34.3 points
Hamish McArthur (GBR): 34.2 points
SEE MORE: How to watch sport climbing at the Paris Olympics: TV and stream schedule
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