The curtain came down on the first IFSC World Cup of the season with Japan’s Narasaki Tomoa taking his seventh Boulder World Cup gold medal in Keqiao, China.
With the win in front of a 1000 capacity crowd at the Shaoxing Keqiao Yangshan Climbing Center, Narasaki moved up to fourth in the men’s all-time list for Boulder golds. It was also his 25th medal from his 28 appearances.
Two flashes and two zones was enough for the Japanese climber who was up against 19 climbers rather than the usual six in a final due to the cancellation and rearranging of round formats due to some heavy rainfall at the start of the competition.
Narasaki said: “I’m happy to take the win. It’s important to get focussed on the Olympic Games and it starts now with this win. I just have to continue training now for the Games.”
Joining his teammate on the podium was wonderkid Anraku Sorato who continued his fine medal form with a silver. The two Japanese climbers were separated by attempts.
Anraku said: “I’m really happy to get a medal at the start of the season. I really wanted to do Boulder four, but it was really confusing and I was nervous, so that’s a negative point here for me.”
It was really all down to attempts for the podium spots as the top six all completed two boulders, it was Belgium’s Hannes Van Duysen though that claimed the third and final spot taking the bronze medal – the second Boulder World Cup medal of his career following his silver from Hachioji last year.
Van Duysen said: “I’m obviously very happy with the third place and to see that the training over winter has paid off and I have the same consistency I had last year in the Boulder.”
Further down the standings in 19th was Dayan Akhtar from Great Britain who posted a personal best finish. His previous best was a 35th.
To hear more from the athletes at IFSC World Cup Keqiao click here
For full results click here