All year the 16-year-old has been showing just what a talent he is. He was the first ever winner of the IFSC World Cup Boulder series and Lead series and now has an Olympic Games to look forward in what will be only his second senior year of competition.

With his Boulder and Lead credentials and versality, the Olympic format looks to be a perfect fit for Anraku, and he began to show that with three flashes on the first three Boulder problems in Jakarta.

It wasn’t until the fourth Boulder that he showed he was human after all when he took four attempts to top instead of his customary one. He was the only climber to top all four and with a score of 99.7pts had a small margin ahead of Lee Dohyun of South Korea who was just behind on 84.5pts.

It was actually the Tokyo 2020 Olympian Pan Yufei from China though who set Anraku the target to beat with a score of 164.9pts total. But Anraku was unphased and topped the tricky Lead route for a near perfect score of 199.7pts and that Olympic ticket.

Anraku said: “I’m so happy to get the Olympic ticket. I was quite calm on the Boulders and I performed well. I didn’t know the scores in Lead and I don’t want to know them, I just focus on myself and getting to the top. Now I want a gold medal in Paris.”

Pan had to settle for the silver medal position and Lee the bronze after a 48.0pts on the Lead route for a total of 132.5pts.

Anraku’s win means Japan has filled their country quota for next year’s showpiece with Narasaki Tomoa securing a spot at the World Championships Bern 2023. It also means that Ogata Yoshiyuki who finished fourth with 117.2pts and Narasaki Meichi who was fifth with 70.6pts cannot take a shot at the Olympic Qualifier Series.

Those who still can are South Korea’s Chon Jongwon who was sixth with 66.8pts, Indonesia’s Raviandi Ramadhan who was seventh with 57.7pts and Chon’s teammate Song Yunchan who was eighth with 23.0pts.

Full men’s results here

ANRAKU Sorato with his Paris 2024 ticketPhoto: Lena Drapella/IFSC