Anraku Sorato, Adam Ondra and Alberto Gines advance to Boulder and Lead final at Paris 2024 Olympics
Anraku Sorato led the way to make the men’s Boulder and Lead final at Paris 2024 as legendary climber Adam Ondra and defending Olympic champion Alberto Ginés López also advanced.
Tackling the daunting 15-metre Lead wall on Wednesday (7 August), the rankings changed drastically from the Boulder round on Monday.
With only eight athletes qualifying for the final, world number one Anraku – just 17 – showed why he is the man to beat with a combined score of 137.0, while both Ginés López (100.7) and USA’s Colin Duffy (87.9) shot up the standings to go through.
Team GB’s world number two Toby Roberts (122.2) impressed in finishing second, and he will be joined in the final by compatriot Hamish McArthur (79.3), while Ondra (116.6) outlined his credentials in pursuit of a first Olympic medal when placing third overall.
Austria’s Jakob Schubert (98.8) and French hope Paul Jenft (91.1) also made the final, which takes place on Friday 9 August.
Following Monday’s Boulder semi-finals, the majority of the early climbers out on Wednesday knew they needed big scores to trouble the top eight, with 20 competing in total.
Team GB’s McArthur, who won Lead bronze at the 2021 world championships, boosted his prospects with a 45.1 for a combined 79.3 overall.
That score lifted McArthur into first, but only briefly, as Spain’s defending Olympic champion Ginés López thrilled the crowd with the best score of the morning so far – a 72.0.
His 100.7 overall was 21.4 points above McArthur, and looked enough to make the final, but Ginés López still faced a nervy wait with 12 climbers remaining.
There was no toppling Ginés López until Ondra came out, with the five-time world champion booking his place in the final when a 68.1 saw him top the standings with a 116.8 overall.
It was heartbreak for Japan’s Narasaki Tomoa, meanwhile, who had placed second in the Boulder semis but slipped shortly after the 10-point hold in the Lead to miss out on the final, with Ginés López and McArthur going on to advance.
The difficult section after the 10-point hold was proving decisive, and Austria’s Schubert – Olympic bronze medallist three years ago – managed to scale his way past that challenge to progress.
The penultimate athlete out was Team GB’s Roberts, who has won two World Cup events in the Lead, and the 19-year-old backed up his 54.1 in the Boulder with a dazzling 68.1 in the Lead – the same as Ondra – to top the rankings on 122.2.
Last out, world number one Anraku was already through based on his Boulder score alone, but laid down a marker with a 68.0 in the Lead for a 137.0 overall to top the standings going into Friday’s final.