Mori Ai, Sean Bailey top qualifying for Climbing World Cup 2022 season-ender in Japan
Japanese teenage prodigy lays down marker in boulder & lead event in Morioka, Iwate Prefecture. Bailey on cusp of first title of 2022 as year winds down.
Mori Ai and Sean Bailey topped qualifying at the IFSC Climbing 2022 World Cup (boulder & lead) event in Morioka, Japan, on Thursday (20 October) - the final competition of the season.
The 19-year-old Mori upstaged her star countrywomen, Ito Futaba and Nonaka Miho, to move into Friday's semi-final round with 183.2 points.
She finished ahead of Natalia Grossman on 160.8 and Oriane Bertone, who had 159.4. Hometown favourite Ito and Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Nonaka placed sixth and ninth with 129.0 and 122.9, respectively.
Mori, who has won twice this season in Edinburgh and Koper, was seventh after the boulder round which Bertone dominated.
But in the lead, Mori was the only one to grab the top hold, catapulting past Bertone who was in a four-way tie for seventh.
Bailey may not have been the best in either discipline but he proved to be the most consistent, finishing second in both events - 79.1 in boulder as well as the lead with 84.1.
Bailey, in search of his first win of the campaign, had a combined lead of almost 13 points over Sascha Lehmann who heads to the semi-final with 150.6.
Narasaki Tomoa swept to three titles at the Asian Championships last weekend in Seoul and was in pole midway through on this afternoon but slipped to 10th in the lead, ending up third overall with 139.0.
The men's final is Friday evening, followed by the women's final on Saturday. Coverage of both events is live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com (territorial restrictions apply)
The World Cup in Morioka is the second international competition featuring the new Paris 2024 B&L format – the first one being the European Championships in Munich in August.