With a new scoring system in place for 2025, Boulder qualification has a possible total score of 125pts from the five boulders. After its first outing for the men’s qualification round in Keqiao, China, the question is not if someone can score 125pts, more like when will they do it.

In two years since his debut on the senior circuit, Japan’s Anraku Sorato has a Boulder Series title from 2023, third place in the 2024 Boulder Series, and not forgetting his Olympic silver medal from Paris 2024. He once again came out of the blocks on fire and scored 124.9pts – his only blemish was two attempts on the first boulder.

Anraku sits top of the standings after topping his group, and is joined by South Korea’s Lee Dohyun who topped his with a 124.8pts score. Lee won the final Boulder World Cup gold of 2024 in his homeland and will be hoping to start 2025 in the same way.

At the season closer in Seoul last year, Great Britain’s Dayan Akhtar narrowly missed out on the podium. He rolls over the form to 2025 and sits third overall with 124.7pts. Is Akhtar the next British climber to make it big on the world stage?

Erin McNeice is one of those Brits in the women’s competition, and of course in the men’s is Olympic champion Toby Roberts. Roberts sits in fifth alongside France’s Mejdi Schalck.

With his sights set on the big prize at the end of the season, Schalck started his season confidently saying: “I’m very happy about my round. I felt really good in the last couple of months of training and it’s always good to be back on the circuit. I felt in pretty good shape. The boulders and the setting was good, and I am happy.”

On his 2025 ambitions Schalck said: “I’ve never won the overall. I have skipped some World Cup’s during the last few seasons so this year I want to do them all and win the overall. I also want to do the World Championships, but my first goal is the overall ranking.”

Schalck is one of four French climber into the semi-final alongside Olympians Sam Avezou and Paul Jenft, but it’s the Japanese yet again who are the team to beat with all six through. Just behind Anraku is teammate Fujiwaki Yuji who is the next best Japanese climber in third position.

In 17^th spot is Bulgaria’s Nikolay Rusev who, like Schalck, feels like the year has started well, despite some initial worries: “I was excited about the first World Cup of 2025 here in China. I felt a little bit of pressure but when I got out on the mats it was fine. I enjoyed the climbing, the boulders, the crowd – they were amazing. It was all good.”

Still only 19 and quite new to the senior circuit, despite representing his country at the Olympic Qualifier Series events last year, Rusev knows he can’t put too much pressure on himself to get the best out of his performances: “The best thing for me is to climb without any expectations. What I want is to have a good climb and be happy with my climbing, that’s my goal for now.”

The two climbers finishing the in the last qualifying spot for the semi-final from each group were France’s Leo Favot and USA’s Benjamin Hanna who is joined by compatriot’s Zander Waller and Colin Duffy in the next phase of competition.

Full results can be found here

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