TODAY AT THE ASIAN GAMES: DAY 2

MEN’S BOULDER

Japan won two medals in the men’s Boulder competition as Sorato Anraku once again won gold and Tomoa Narasaki won bronze. South Korea’s Dohyun Lee was the climber to split the pair winning silver.

Anraku has been unstoppable in 2026 on the World Climbing Series stage, and he now carries that on to the Asian Games. He was far and away the climber to beat topping three boulders, but just like everyone else, failing to score on the tricky final boulder of the competition.

The third boulder proved decisive because of that last boulder, with 74.5pts his winning tally after he topped the dynamic sequence.

After his win Anraku said: “I feel great. I’m happy, but I also feel like I’ve been set free. Backstage I was alternating between tension and excitement, so to finish the competition feels very liberating.

“It’s a good kind of tension, because the more there is, the more in tune with my body I feel. I tried to adjust that tension depending on what problem was coming up.”

On his performance Anraku said: “I don’t think I’m the strongest competitor; rather that I did the best in this particular competition at these particular problems.

“I’m always looking up. There’s always something to improve on in each round, and I think I’m able to win because I keep looking up.”

Silver medallist Lee got off to the worst possible start scoring zero on boulder one admitting that he was nervous, but the experienced climber put it behind him and topped the next two to put him in medal contention. He did have a shot at gold, but once again boulder four stopped his march up the leaderboard eventually finishing on 49.7pts.

Narasaki was out relatively early in the order and knew he could potentially have a medal with a score of 44.9pts. He needed rival Yufei Pan of China to not zone on boulder four to win the bronze, and that is how it played out. Narasaki made it two Japanese climbers for the home crowd to cheer.

Pan finished in fourth on 30 points, equal on points with South Korea’s Jongwon Chon, but ahead due to countback leaving Chon fifth overall.

China’s Junzhe Hu was sixth, Thailand’s Auswin Aueareechit was seventh and Singapore’s Gerald Bayo Verosil was eighth.

WOMEN’S SPEED

After making it through the final’s rounds, the gold medal race was contested by four very strong climbers; China’s Lijuan Deng and Yafei Zhou, Indonesia’s Desak Made Rita and South Korea’s Jimin Jeong.

Maybe it was nerves, or maybe bad luck, but Zhou made a false start which left the other three climbers knowing they would take home a medal – now it was a race for colours. Gold. Silver. Or Bronze.

With no false starts, the race was as close as could be. Made Rita and Deng touched the pad at 6.06s – but the Indonesian was 6.062 and Deng 6.064. Made Rita had gold and a new Asian Games and Asian continental record.

After her win Made Rita said: “It felt great to break the record. I wasn't expecting it. It felt like something that was missing. I wanted to get it done so after I did it, it was: ‘So it's done’.

“I was so grateful to everyone, to my parents, my teammates, everyone in Indonesia and also happy that I put in the effort that led to this.

“I hope this time and this performance can be a stepping stone to bigger and better things in future.”

Jeong won the bronze medal, but even she produced a quick time of 6.18s showing the strength in the region of the Speed climbers, and how four-lanes brings out the best in you racing against the quickest Speed climbers around.

WOMEN’S BOULDER

Eight women reach the final from a start list of 14, and those women are from four nations. Two climbers from South Korea, two Japan, two from China and two from Singapore progressed.

The day’s top performer was Chaehyun Seo who flashed every semi-final Boulder for a perfect 100pts. After the South Korean it was Japan’s Miho Nonaka in second. Seo and Nonaka were the only two to top each boulder, with Nonaka progressing with a score of 99.8pts.

It was two Chinese climbers next with the same score of 85pts and both missing the top on the same Boulder two. 

Yuetong Zhang was third with Zhilu Luo in fourth, and Luo knew why see didn’t complete that second Boulder: “Today my condition is not bad. I felt really strong during the warmup but there was one thing I didn't do well. Boulder two, on the last move, I didn't go aggressive and this is one point I need to improve on.”

Luo has been struggling with some niggly injuries and for a long time has been heavily strapped on her shoulder but today was wearing very minimal tape: “I've been doing a lot of rehab and I'm feeling really good, almost no pain.”

Looking forward to the final and what Boulders she would set for herself if she could, Luo said: “I think it would be a hard slab, an interesting coordination, a physical one for sure and an electric. That's what I want.”

Singapore’s Vanessa Si Yinn Teng had a similar round to the Chinese athletes topping all but Boulder two were she zoned. Teng took more attempts though scoring 84.8pts.

Ai Mori came out in front of the home crowd and quickly topped the first two Boulders, but a zero score on three set her back a little on the leaderboard before a final Boulder top secured her final spot with 74.8pts.

It came down to two tops and two zones for the last two final spots, and South Korea’s Heeju Noh and Singapore’s Sihui Natalie Goh were the ones to make it with 69.8pts and 69.4pts.

They just edged out Iran’s Sarina Ghaffari and Thailand’s Natcha Supavorased on attempts.

MEN’S SPEED

With an Asian Games very four years, or in this case three because of a pandemic postponed previous edition, there is a lot of opportunity to lower the Games Speed record. The women did it multiple times yesterday, and the men did it again today.

It was a tussle between Indonesia’s Aditya Tri Syahria - who beat the previous 4.95s set by teammate and Olympic champion Veddriq Leonardo in the last edition - China’s Shouhong Chu who then lowered it, teammate Jianguo Long who equalled it before lowering it, then on his final run, it finally resting back with Tri Syahria with 4.62s for the new official benchmark.

All three fighting for the record progressed through to the final ahead of Damir Toktarov in fourth who told us he was going to lower the Kazakhstan national record. Hat’s off to Toktarov who did it, setting a time of 4.76s and simply saying after: “I told you!”

Former record holder Leonardo made it through in fifth. Japan’s two climbers – Ryo Omasa and Shuto Fujino - both progressed. And the cut off time for the top 16 was 5.78s clocked by Chi Fung Au.

Within that time and through was India’s Deepu Mallesh who set the best time of his career – a 5.09s

“I’ve never got a 5.09 in practice or a competition so I’m pretty psyched.”

And the reason: “I think a different exposure to a lot of climbers in a lot of different countries has really helped me. I was with the Indonesian team last year, with Thailand this year, and I think this sort of exchange has really helped me a lot and learn a lot more.”

With a new PB and a place in the finals, Mallesh is just looking to have some fun now the pressure is off: “I will just go all out in the final and enjoy the comp. It’s only my second final in an international comp I think so I just want to enjoy it and hopefully go for another PB.”

COMING UP 

The women will contest their Boulder final and the men their Speed finals on day 3 of the Asian Games. 

For more information on Climbing at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games 2026 visit: https://www.aichi-nagoya2026.org/sport/sport-climbing/