After Boring Start, Team Japan Dominates the Men’s Boulder Semifinal

And we’re off! Hard finishes were the name of the game in today’s Men’s Bouldering Semifinals at the Paris Olympics, where team Japan dominated the field. The setters compressed the difficulty into the tops of each of the four boulders, which means that we routinely saw climbers establish on the 10-point zone holds, but we saw very few finishes. Topping just one boulder was enough to give the athletes a serious point advantage going into Wednesday’s Lead round.

Boulder 1

Competitors came out of the gate onto a steep and powerful problem on fin-shaped blue pinches. The climbing was hard from the start, with climbers like USA’s Jesse Grupper and Australia’s Campbell Harrison struggling on the very first moves. But a majority of the climbers moved well through the first and second zones. Thanks to the positioning of the second zone, there was no point separation between those who almost did the boulder but failed to match the final hold (Yannick Flohé, Adam Ondra, Toby Roberts) and the dozen or so competitors who gained the second zone but weren’t able to do the hard three moves separating them from the finishing match sequence. Since competitors came out of the gate in reverse order—with those who qualified last came out first—it seemed like Boulder 1 was something of a dud until Jakob Schubert, after battling through more than a minute of trial and error on the wall, finally made the match happen. Climbing immediately after him, the UK’s Toby Roberts also essentially topped the boulder, absolutely styling it, but he didn’t touch the final hold with both hands for quite long enough, so he wasn’t awarded the 25 points—something that put a lot of pressure on him in the later problems. Then the last climber, 17-year-old Anraku Soratu, styled the problem on his second attempt.

Boulder 2

Boulder 2 was a test of coordination and strength, with relatively moderate climbing through a jump up. After the second zone hold, a tricky toehook led to an insanely hard double-clutch finish that multiple climbers (notably France’s Sam Avezou and USA’s Colin Duffy) looked close on, but only Anraku Soratu managed to stick. In some ways, Boulder 2 was a repeat of Boulder 1, since more than half of the athletes reached the second zone but only two climbers managed to top it. Anraku Soratu, again climbing brilliantly today, managed to flashed it, putting him in the #1 position after just two boulders. He made it look so easy that the announcer simply said, “It raises the question as to why others struggle.”

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Boulder 3

Boulder 3 seemed designed to be the showiest and most fun boulder to watch—but it was a bit of a dud. The boulder essentially consisted of three set-piece coordination sequences. The first was a lache move, in which competitors hung footless from a jug and then swung over to a stance on a volume where the first zone was. The vast majority of competitors completed this. The second sequence was a tricky sideways skip-dyno onto another volume—one that stymied a number of competitors. After this, it was an easy move to the second zone. The third sequence was supposed to be a rightward paddle dyno—but no one except for Anraku Soratu got even remotely close to doing it, and he didn’t even touch the finishing jug.

• [Read: Just How Hard is Olympic Sport Climbing?]
  

Boulder 4

The slab boulder! As the announcers pointed out, putting the slab last makes for an interesting mental challenge for athletes under pressure, since it forces them to relax and stay calm when they’re feeling full of adrenaline and would rather be yarding hard in the steeps. But it, along with Boulder 1, was the best set problem of the day. An easy standup move led to the first zone. This was followed by a very tricky and committing balance move on a miserable foothold, which gained access to zone 2. From here, competitors had to do a tenuous foot dyno that allowed them to match the final hold. The problem’s first top was a buzzer beater by hometown hero Sam Avezou, who sniped the coordination foot dyno and matched the final hold with just 8 seconds left. Ondra then reminded us of his all-around abilities by flashing to the second zone and later ticking  the problem. Tomoa Narasaki and Toby Roberts also got important tops—the latter making up for his inability to match the final on Boulder #1.

Men’s Boulder Semifinal Results

1. Soratu Anraku: 69 points
2. Tomoa Narasaki: 54.4
3. Toby Roberts: 54.1
4. Sam Avezou: 49.2
5. Adam Ondra: 48.7
6. Jakob Schubert: 44.7
7. Hannes Van Duysen: 34.3
8. Hamish McArthur: 34.2
9. Paul Jenft: 34.1
10. Dohyun Lee: 34
11. Colin Duffy: 33.8
12. Yannick Flohé: 29.7
13. Pan Yufei: 29
14. Alberto Ginés López: 28.7
15. Alex Megos: 24.7
16. Sascha Lehmann: 24
17. Luka Potočar: 19.6
18. Jesse Grupper: 18.9
19. Campbell Harrison: 9.4
20. Mel Jans van Rensburg: 9.4

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