MEN’S LEAD

The final medal to be awarded at the Asian Games 2026 was the men’s Lead and Japan’s Neo Suzuki was the man to give the home fans a golden goodbye to the competition.

The last climber to come out onto the wall as the top qualifier in the semi-final, Suzuki climbed to hold 40 but fell reaching for the next move giving him the plus, but he may have already known he had won as the crowd erupted as he moved past hold 38.

On winning his gold Suzuki said: “I’d been thinking of this competition for a long time as one of the defining events of my season, so I’m really happy to have got the result I was aiming for.

“At the end I was climbing like my life depended on it, really pushing through on willpower. But when the cheers went up, I sort of sensed I’d reached a new high point, and while climbing I thought: I’m going to go even higher and win by a bigger margin over second place.”

There were three climbers on hold 38 that the crowd was shouting about, but only one made the plus move. That climber was Suzuki’s teammate Satone Yoshida, who with 38+ ensured two Japanese climbers on the podium.

South Korea’s Dohyun Lee scored 38 and so did China’s Yufei Pan, but with countback coming into play, Lee took the bronze medal, and Pan was nudged off the podium in fourth. It could have different though as Pan made a few moves more but was judged to have moved past the last clipping position so was downgraded.

Indonesia’s Putra Tri Ramadani was fifth on hold 32+ with Pan’s teammate Junzhe Hu sixth on hold 28+. Seventh went to South Korea’s Hyunseung Noh with 26+, eighth was Indonesia’s Raviandi Ramadhan, and due to a three-way tie in the semi-final, the men had nine finalists with Thailand’s Auswin Aueareechit ninth on hold 21+.

WOMEN’S LEAD

With the only top of the finals, South Korea’s Chaehyun Seo won gold in style to upgrade her Boulder bronze from earlier in the competition.

Seo and Japan’s Ai Mori were the nearest rivals in the final, with Mori falling as she leapt for the final hold. That slip left Seo with an opportunity which she took and meant Mori had yet another Asian Games silver after her Boulder medal. Mori’s score was 47+.

After her win Seo said: “My mind just went blank, and all I could think was, ‘Ah, I finally did it’.

“I’ve never actually come in first like this before. All year I kept feeling like I could win, but there were a lot of competitions where I didn’t. Looking at my results, I was in the top three every time, and there were lots of rounds where I was first all the way through the semifinal, yet I kept finishing only second or third.

“But it wasn’t that I felt I was lacking. I felt I could definitely have gone further, but I had a lot of frustrating competitions, so I just kept feeling disappointed.”

Both Seo and Mori were on the Boulder and Lead podiums, and they were joined once again by China’s Yuetong Zhang whose 39+ climb gave her the bronze medal, adding to the gold she won in Boulder.

Fourth position went to South Korea's Chaeyeong Kim who reached hold 38+, and she was ahead of fifth placed Alma Ariella Tsany from Indonesia on hold 35+.

China’s Zhilu Luo was sixth on hold 35, Japan’s Mei Kotake was seventh on hold 34 and Indonesia’s Sukma Lintang Cahyani was eighth on hold 28+.

With the podium ceremonies complete for Lead, it brought an end to the Climbing at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 with the next scheduled for Doha, Qatar in 2030.

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