IFSC Boulder World Cup 2024: Narasaki Tomoa leads Japanese one-two in Keqiao season opener
Japan's Narasaki Tomoa claimed the season-opening win on the 2024 IFSC Climbing World Cup circuit on Wednesday (10 April) in a wide-open fight for gold at the IFSC World Cup Keqiao 2024 in People's Republic of China.
Bad weather on Monday had forced the postponement of the qualifying round, meaning all 67 climbers participated on Wednesday morning instead of the usual 20 in the semi-finals.
As a result, the evening's session was converted into a single final of 20 athletes competing at the Shaoxing Keqiao Yangshan Climbing Centre, which also played host to last year's Asian Games climbing competitions.
The final's four boulders proved tricky, with no athlete scoring more than two tops, which six men did. Narasaki and his compatriot Anraku Sorato, who had been joint-top in the morning's qualification, were the only ones to also reach the zone on all four routes.
Anraku, who was the last man competing on the wall, knew that if he managed to reach top on his final boulder, he would overtake Narasaki for the win. However, he was unable to do so in the time allocated, and Narasaki's fewer attempts needed gave him the win.
Narasaki reached his two tops and four zones on the first attempt each time, ending with a score of 2T4z 2 4. Anraku, by comparison, took four tries for his two tops and eight for his four zones (2T4z 4 8).
Three men achieved two tops and three zones, but it was Belgium's Hannes van Duysen who did it in the fewest tries, winning bronze on 2T3z 4 4.
