South Korea’s Dohyun Lee and Jongwon Chon set the standard in the men’s Boulder qualification in China
With the men split into two groups, it didn’t stop teammates Lee and Chon securing near perfect scores for top spot in their respective groups to lead the way into the semi-final.
THE ASIAN REGION LEADS THE WAY
Both Lee and Chon scored 124.9pts with their closest rivals, Japan’s Keita Dohi and Rei Kawamata behind in joint third on 109.7pts.
Add into the top seven places Tomoa Narasaki and Sorato Anraku and the region is looking strong for the semis.
Making it through to the next round there is also some home nation climbers to hype the crowd up as four progress – Junzhe Hu, Xuanpu Bai, Yufei Pan and Ziqi Xu.
DON’T COUNT OUT EUROPE
There are still plenty of climbers from Europe in the mix with Belgium’s Hannes Van Duysen the highest qualifier in fifth overall and France’s Max Bertone also mixing it up in the top of the leaderboard.
Sitting in joint 21st position are Bulgaria’s Nikolay Rusev and Germany’s Lucas Trandafir, and both were complimentary of the routesetting.
Rusev said: “Congratulations to all the routesetters, I think they really hit all the styles. There were moments where you had to think as the slightest mistake could put you out. Pretty much perfect boulders.”
Trandafir echoed the sentiment saying: “For sure it was difficult, but the level was pretty good. It was a well-set round with a few tops taking you through.”
Speaking more specifically about his performance Rusev said: “My qualification went pretty well for the first event of the season. It was quite stressful as I was close to be out of the semis. Climbing is no joke, if you don’t focus you are out.
“I made some mistakes but overall, it went pretty good. I feel fresh and I’m happy to be on the circuit again.”
Both will now enjoy a day off as they watch the women fight for medals before returning on day 3 of Keqiao to take on the semi and possibly the final.
In preparation Trandafir said: “I will try and rest tomorrow, I’m curious to see what I can do in the semis.”
Just one competitor outside of Asia and Europe made it into the semi, and that man is the USA’s Benjamin Hanna. He will have some work to do to make the final and will have to move up from 17th – but in climbing, anything is possible.
RESULTS
Click here for the full results
UP NEXT
The men will have their semi-final and final on day 3 of the World Climbing Series Keqiao 2026. 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 an overview of where to watch the event click here.
News and updates will be available on the World Climbing website and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, X, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Bilibili, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.