Japan once again has a strong showing heading into the men’s Boulder semi-final, but there’s a few European climbers mixing it with the best at the top of the order
Looking at the joint first position from the afternoon session, there’s a familiar look to it as Japan and France hold those spots.
For France it’s Mejdi Schalck, but for Japan it’s yet another stepping up to show the strength and depth the country has – Rei Kawamata.
Kawamata has been on the podium at a World Cup before, but that was in 2022. He hasn’t been on the team since then but has returned like he’s never been away. Both Kawamata and Schalck topped four boulders and made a zone in the other.
The top ten has the usual suspects in with Sorato Anraku, Sohta Amagasa and Dohyun Lee, but there’s also a couple of names that you haven’t seen in this position before at this level.
Czechia’s Lukas Mokrolusky sits third and Bulgaria’s Slav Kirov is seventh. For both, it is their second visit to the semi-finals. 18-year-old Mokrolusky is only in his third event on the world level. 20-year-old Kirov is a little more experienced with 13.
Someone with experience is USA’s Colin Dufy. Alongside Anraku in fifth, Duffy is back at the World Climbing Series for the first time this season.
“I feel great,” said Duffy, “I was sad to miss China but I’m happy to be back here in Bern. I had final exams for school, and I just couldn’t make the trip.”
Speaking about his return to action Duffy said: “It was a pretty difficult round. There was no easy boulder in the round. They were all quite demanding. You needed to top on a few difficult boulders to make it through and I was luckily enough to have a good performance on every boulder and have a solid round.”
CONSISTENCY KEY FOR BLOEM IMPROVEMENT
Moving into the second half of the qualified athletes you see names like France’s Paul Jenft just ahead of Great Britain’s Max Milne and Japan’s Tomoa Narasaki.
Going toward the bottom end of the qualifiers you see South Korea’s Jongwon Chon in 21st ahead of Slovenia’s Anze Peharc and Germany’s Elias Arriagada Krüger who occupy the final, 23rd positions.
Krüger is joined by teammate Thorben Perry Bloem in the semi-final after he finished in 17th, but he knows he is on the edge of something good with his climbing: “I thought it was closer to being better than it was to be worse. I fell on a few top moves so I’m confident I can improve.”
Talking about what he needed to improve on to make it ‘better’ Bloem said: “I want to work on my consistency. I had a few semis last season, but I didn’t make them all, so I want to be more consistent at that.
“I feel the semi-final style suits me more than qualification, so I hope for the best on Sunday and hopefully make the final. But for now, everything is a bonus.”
Although Bloem has something to aim for in the semi-final, last year’s winner, China’s Yufei Pan has lost the chance to defend his gold after finishing agonisingly close to a semi-final place in 25th position.
RESULTS
Full results can be found here
WHERE TO WATCH
The semi-final and final rounds will be live streamed on the World Climbing YouTube channel, with geo-blocking applied to selected countries and territories.
For all the facts and stats of the event click here.
For an overview of where to watch the event click here.
News and updates about all World Climbing events will be available on the official website, and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Bilibili, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.