Excited crowd pushes Alex Megos and Seo Chaehyun on to top Lead qualification
Cheered on by fans who arrived early, Megos rebounded from a poor Boulder qualification round to place third overall, while Seo achieved the only Top hold of the day.
Sport Climbing
If there was one thing for fans to take away from the sport climbing Lead qualification round at the Olympic Qualifier Series 2024 Budapest, it might be to show up early.
With the competitions taking place in an open park on the Ludovika Campus in the Hungarian capital, the few areas of shade were quickly taken up by those who had showed up early on Friday (21 June) morning, forecast to be the hottest day of the week amid an ongoing heatwave.
And those who did were also treated to some of the best climbing of the day. With the men and women climbing simultaneously on the Lead wall, the pair to watch was third on the wall: the women's world number two Lead climber Seo Chaehyun and the men's third-ranked Lead specialist Alexander Megos.
German Megos, in particular, had a lot to prove after a lacklustre Boulder qualification on Thursday left him back in 14th, having only achieved a single Top hold from his four problems.
"Climbing and competing in this heat is different game," he had told Olympics.com after Thursday's Boulder round. "I did okay, not too bad, but Lead is still going to be better, I hope."
That came to fruition on Friday, with the 30-year-old making it the furthest up the wall, reaching a little above the 88-point hold.
A clearly excited Megos yelled out in delight as he was belayed down the wall having fallen barely three holds from the top: his 88.1 points gave him a total of 137.0 points, enough to see him finish the qualifying round in third position.
The only other man to make it to the same 88-point hold was the Olympic champion Alberto Ginés López, who topped the overall standings on 152.5 points. Czechia's Adam Ondra (141.9) separates the two.
"Proud" Seo mingles with fans after near-perfect qualification
Seo, meanwhile, enjoyed the rest of the competition after her climb by sitting in the shade among the fans, some of whom approached her for autographs to which she obliged.
The Republic of Korea climber had reason to celebrate and relax, having been the only athlete in either the men's or women's event to achieve five Tops in qualifying across both Boulder and Lead. Her points total was 0.9 shy of a possible perfect 200.
"It's my first time to top all the boulders and lead, so I am so proud of myself right now," she said. "I didn't feel much pressure because I did well in Shanghai, so I was just having fun on the wall."
Her double fist pumps after she successfully clipped into the Top hold said it all: the Asian Games silver medallist is the in-form climber.
Seo topped the women's standings on 199.1 points, with USA's Brooke Raboutou second on 195.6 and Japan's Nonaka Miho third on 187.8.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective teams at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at Paris 2024 depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation. Click here to view the qualification system for each sport.
You can watch the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) in Budapest from 20 to 23 May live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app for mobile devices.
OQS Budapest 2024 results - Men's Boulder & Lead qualification - Top 8
Lead score in parenthesis
- Alberto Ginés López (ESP) 152.5 (88.0)
- Adam Ondra (CZE) 141.9 (72.0)
- Alexander Megos (GER) 137.0 (88.1)
- Lee Dohyun (KOR) 127.7 (68.1)
- Sam Avezou (FRA) 127.4 (68.0)
- Hannes van Duysen (BEL) 127.0 (57.0)
- Mejdi Schalck (FRA) 113.8 (54.0)
- Hamish McArthur (GBR) 113.6 (54.1)
Full results here.
OQS Budapest 2024 results - Women's Boulder & Lead qualification - Top 8
Lead score in parenthesis
- Seo Chaehyun (KOR) 199.1 (100.0)
- Brooke Raboutou (USA) 195.6 (96.1)
- Nonaka Miho (JPN) 187.8 (88.0)
- Luo Zhilu (CHN) 187.2 (88.1)
- Mia Krampl (SLO) 167.1 (88.0)
- Ito Futaba (JPN) 164.4 (80.1)
- Anastasia Sanders (USA) 163.5 (64.0)
- Ievgeniia Kazbekova (UKR) 160.0 (80.1)
Full results here.