With 20 athletes’ aiming to secure a final’s spot in tonight’s IFSC World Cup Brixen men’s Boulder final, you could have guessed a few would have been from Japan – and you would have been correct.
The Japanese Boulder team have been strong all season long and continued to show just how much with four out of the five representatives making the final round and guaranteeing a medal for the nation.
Despite the dominance it was actually a British climber, Toby Roberts, who sits in number one spot going into the finals, and rightly feels pretty good about his semi-final performance: “The round felt really great. I really enjoyed climbing out there and the crowd were absolutely incredible.
I enjoyed all the blocks and I got to put in a good fight on all four of them, especially the last one trying to hit it to the breaks. Just really enjoyed it all and psyched for how I did.”
Expanding on M4 Roberts said: “I was struggling a little bit with the dynamic movement, but I was also enjoying trying to break it down and give it my best go. I was happy to get the zone in the end. It took fourteen goes, quite a lot of attempts, but for sure happy to get the zone in the end.”
Following Roberts in second position is Anraku Sorato from Japan. The 16-year-old already has an IFSC World Cup medal to his name when he won silver in Salt Lake City – where he was actually joined on the podium by Roberts who took bronze.
The climber to beat both in Salt Lake City was Narasaki Tomoa, and he will again attempt to do the same as he qualifies in third after topping the M4 problem that Roberts and Anraku could not.
At the last World Cup in Prague, Lee Dohyun of South Korea took his first-ever World Cup medal, and it was gold. He will look to back that up with another medal in Brixen.
The top four climbers all topped three boulders with two Japanese athletes edging out the competition to make finals with two tops.
With odds in the favour of Japan for a medal, the Narasaki family also have pretty good odds of silverware as Meichi joins his brother Tomoa progressing through the semi-finals.
Last but by certainly no means least is Ogata Yoshiyuki. The multiple World Cup medallist is once again in with a shot to add to his collection by placing sixth.
Full men’s Boulder results can be found here.
The IFSC World Cup Brixen 2023 men’s Boulder final is scheduled for 20:00 (UTC+2:00) tonight.
The final will be live streamed on the IFSC YouTube channel, with geographic restriction applied. For more information about where to watch the IFSC World Cup Series 2023 please click here.
Great Britain’s Toby Roberts celebrates a top in the men’s Boulder semi-finals
Photo: Dimitris Tosidis/IFSC
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