Natalia Grossman and Fujii Kokoro win Boulder titles at the climbing World Cup in Seoul - Results
American claims women's crown at the second stop of the IFSC - Climbing World Cup series in South Korea, while Japanese athletes sweep the men's podium.
Sport Climbing
Reigning world champion Natalia Grossman claimed the women's boulder title at the IFSC Climbing World Cup event in Seoul, South Korea, on Sunday (8 May).
The American led the field in the women's event after qualifying, and was the only finallist to achieve four tops at the Jungnang Stadium.
Oriane Bertone of France was second, with Brooke Raboutou finishing in the third spot on the podium for USA.
The men's final saw reigning world champion Fujii Kokoro of Japan claim the title in dramatic fashion.
Fujii was the top men's qualifier on Saturday but had been second behind Ogata Yoshiyuki until the last few seconds of his final climb. Narasaki Tomoa also reached the top with seconds to spare to move up to second, with Ogata finishing third in a Japanese sweep of the podium.
On Friday, Veddriq Leonardo walked away with his first win of the 2022 speed IFSC World Cup season, setting a new men's world record in qualifying, while the women's world record also fell.
READ MORE: World record tumbles at speed climbing World Cup event
Results - Sport Climbing World Cup event in Seoul 2022 - Women's Boulder Final
Six competitors progressed from the semi-finals. Full results after the final.
- Natalia Grossman, USA.
- Oriane Bertone, France
- Brooke Raboutou, USA
- Stasa Gejo, Serbia
- Camilla Moroni, Italy.
- Mia Aoyagi, Japan.
Full results are here.
Results - Sport Climbing World Cup event in Seoul 2022 - Men's Boulder Final
Six competitors progressed from the semi-finals. These are the final rankings.
- Fujii Kokoro, Japan.
- Narasaki Tomoa, Japan.
- Ogata Yoshiyuki, Japan.
- Paul Jenft, France.
- Narasaki Meichi, Japan.
- Dohi Keita, Japan.
Full results are here.
Sport climbing competition format for 2022 season
When sport climbing made its debut at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, each athlete had to compete in boulder, lead, and speed disciplines and their total scores for each event were combined together to determine the winners of one set of medals.
There will be a different format at the Paris 2024 Games, with two separate competitions. The speed event will have its own medals, while lead and boulder will be combined.
How to watch the sport climbing 2022 World Cup action including Seoul event
Full schedule of Sunday boulder finals action (Korea Standard Time):
Sunday, 8 May:
5:00 PM Women's Boulder final
Followed by Men's Boulder final
Sport Climbing events in the 2022 season are available for live streaming and highlights broadcasts on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com in some regions. Full session replays of the action from Seoul are here.
Action is also shown on the competition broadcast partners, and by IFSC on YouTube.