Team Japan excelled in the Boulder discipline at the IFSC Nations Grand Finale securing the win in front of a home crowd in Fukuoka as South Korea finished second, and Israel third.

Sohta Amagasa, Sorato Anraku, Mao Nakamura, and Miho Nonaka can out of the blocks flying with the whole team flashing their first boulder for a perfect 100pts, and they didn’t let up until they lifted the trophy.

Thanks to their fast start and a strong second boulder performance from the four, the title was secured before the final mixed boulder, although that didn’t stop Nakamura and Anraku both topping and justifying coach Yuki Suzuki’s choice for them to climb. They finished with a score of 219.6pts.

After the win Nakamura said: *“*The change and iconic moment of this event is the mixed boulder. Men and women don’t climb the same boulders usually but, in this event, we do, and I really wanted to show that not only the men could top this boulder.”

For Amagasa, his defining memory from the event is actually a boulder he didn’t even top: *“*Usually I’m an individual performer but together we could discuss and climb together as a team and that was wonderful. Even though I couldn’t top boulder two a highlight was the whole team coming together to support every attempt.”

Team captain Nonaka said: “I’m very excited about the new format. Individually and together, we accomplished a lot.**”

The fight for second and third came down to the final mixed boulder.

Chon Yejun, Jung Yejin, Lee Dohyun, and Seo Chaehyun climbed third after coming through the Elimination Heat but after the first boulder were ahead of both Israel and the USA.

South Korea had a score of 59.9pts after boulder one and the Israel team of Adi Bark, Maya Dreamer, Oren Prihed, and Alma Sapir Halevi had a score of 44.9pts.

Israel pegged back South Korea after boulder two, but they still held a small advantage with a score of 129.9pts to Israel’s 129.7pts. It was down to the final, mixed boulder.

Seo and Lee were chosen for South Korea and set the target of 164.7pts for their rivals to beat. Despite their best efforts, Prihed and Sapir Halevi couldn’t better the result and Israel finished with a score of 154.7pts for third position.

Vail Everett, Declan Osgood, Paloma Slowik, and Zoe Yi finished off their competition with a score of 89.6pts for fourth place in Boulder.

RESULTS

All the results can be found at https://ifsc.hopp.to/ngfresults

WHERE TO WATCH

All elimination heat and final rounds in Fukuoka will be live streamed on the IFSC YouTube channel, with restrictions that may apply according to the territory.

News and updates about the event will be available on the IFSC website and across the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, X, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.