Japan’s Anraku Sorato is the only man to have won three IFSC Boulder World Cup’s in a row, and he is definitely a man on the hunt to also be the only one with four.

Down in seventh after qualification, Anraku came out relatively early in the semi-final considering his high standard for 2025 and began his round with a flash on boulder one. Doesn’t sound unusual, but up until that point no one else had topped the route, and as it turned out, no one after did either.

Anraku carried on with two more tops but could only make the zone on the fourth, which would be the only boulder that couldn’t be completed by any of the 27 semi-finalists.

With 84.3pts Anraku was back in his familiar position of first and means he will climb last in the final.

France’s Mejdi Schalck has looked strong so far this season, and he was the closest competitor to the Japanese climber on 69.9pts which included two tops and two zones.

That formula of two tops and two zones positioned the second to fifth positions with just the number of attempts making the separation.

Third place was Japan’s Amagasa Sohta with 69.5pts, fourth was South Korea’s Lee Dohyun with 69.3pts and fifth China’s Pan Yufei with 69.0pts. All will want to show their best in the final, especially Lee who will be going for his third consecutive gold in Prague after taking the top spot for the past two years.

Slovenia’s Anze Peharc has made another 2025 final with 59.1pts and sixth place ahead of first-time finalist Samuel Richard from France. Richard had 54.0pts for seventh.

The man in eighth did something quite strange during the semi-final - a back flip. That may not seem strange in sport, but the uncommon thing about it was Belgium’s Hannes van Duysen did it after NOT completing the boulder.

Talking though the moment Van Duysen said: “The physical boulder, I came very close to doing that and I think I should have done it.

“Yeah, it was a backflip out of excitement, which was a bit failed,” he said with a laugh, “I had so much adrenaline as I was so close to the top, and I had to do something to get rid of it.”

It seemed to work as Van Duysen made the final with 53.6pts for the last spot, and he knows what he needs to work on to improve in Prague: “It was good for sure. I think I did some very good things and also some things I could do better, like my strategy and which method I was going to use.”

Van Duysen made the final with a top and three zones, and the climber he edged out had a mixed, but ‘standard’ round by his, well, by his standards…

Great Britain’s Jack MacDougall was that climber and said: “It was great. Pretty standard for me. Two power boulders which I didn’t get anything on and then a slab and a coordination which I topped, so good execution. I just have to get stronger.”

While the crowd in Prague had to deal with the cold and wet conditions, the climbers had a roof to keep them sheltered from the elements, and something that helped MacDougall feel somewhat comfortable: “For me the conditions were great. A bit cold but still a bit humid, very similar to the UK. So was like being at home.”

At home was exactly where Czechia’s Adam Ondra was. Unfortunately, the adoring crowd will not get to see him climb in the final of what he says will be his last Boulder World Cup as he finished in 15^th position.

The last eight men standing will battle it out for podium places this evening at 18:30 local time (UTC+2:00).

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