Lots of familiar names, and one debutant, into the men's Keqiao Boulder final
For some time, South Korea’s Lee Dohyun has had an issue with his shoulder. At the Olympic Qualifier Series last year he managed to ignore it and powered his way to Paris 2024. Whether the issue is fixed, or he is just powering through again, Lee was the dominate climber in the IFSC Boulder World Cup Keqiao semi-final.
So far in China, Lee has topped every boulder he has faced and is the only climber to do so. Last out on the mats, Lee looked strong and secure in his climbing to a points tally of 99.3 out of a possible 100 on offer.
With Lee in first, the next best was Japan’s Anraku Sorato. He looked to be on his way to another full house, but could only manage the zone on the final boulder for a score of 84.4pts.
The Japanese team always have multiple climbers at the top of the rankings, but when it comes to the men’s Boulder, so do France. For Paris 2024 places three had to go down to two with Mejdi Schalck missing out, but he is back and into the final in third on 69.3pts.
Just ahead of Frenchman Sam Avezou in fifth is World Cup debutant Oren Prihed of Israel. There seems to be no nerves and a quiet confidence carrying Prihed through the rounds.
Prihed said: “It feels amazing, I didn’t expect in my first World Cup to go to the final. I just took it step by step. Semi-final, and then this happened.”
The Israeli climber is enjoying his moment in China saying: “It was super fun. Most of the competition I’m in I’m ready to just skip the round and get to the result, but here it was super fun to go on the routes. I was excited for the next one after I just finished the last one. It was just so fun.”
Seemingly not short on confidence in his climbing, Prihed fancies his chances in his first final: “I feel stressed, but I think I can do it. I’m coming to win.”
Prihed had 69.1pts in the semi-final and Avezou had 68.8pts. After he had completed his round, Avezou said: “I’m super happy I made it to finals. I climbed well, it wasn’t my strongest shape in the physical boulders but much better in the coordination and slab, and it turned out to be enough so I’m happy about that.”
The Japanese Narasaki brothers, Meichi and Tomoa, both made it into the final and join Anraku to boost their nations percentage of a Keqiao medal. Meichi 68.3pts for sixth and Tomoa 59.4pts for seventh.
With the same odds, France has three final climbers as Paul Jenft just made the cut despite a zone being chalked off his tally. Jenft topped the fourth and final boulder, but as he came down the judges took to the mat to inform him he had the zone from M3 removed from his score.
Thankfully that topped fourth boulder gave him 59.4pts andjoint seventh position, just 0.1 ahead of ninth place finisher Amagasa Sohta from Japan.
Home comforts worked well for China’s Fu Jiahao and Xu Ziqi who both made a first semi-final for a personal best finish, as did Germany’s Thorben Perry Bloem.
Bloem ended his competition in 12th, Xu was 14th and Fu was 23rd.
Full results can be found here
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