Japan’s Anraku Sorato is on an IFSC Boulder World Cup roll. The Olympic silver medallist won his third gold medal in a row and equals Austria’s Kilian Fischhuber as the only men to accomplish that feat.

Anraku’s road to gold wasn’t all plain sailing though. While others topped the first boulder of the final, he could only make a zone. On boulder two, Anraku began his climb just before the clock had started and had to restart which meant a flash became a second attempt.

As seems to be the case though with Anraku, these things did not phase him. He flashed boulder three and needing a top on boulder four, duly obliged to secure a 84.4pts and the gold medal to the delight of the roaring Salt Lake City crowd.

After the podium with the gold around his neck, Anraku said: “I’m so happy to win in Salt Lake City. To get three gold medals this year is amazing. I want to win a fourth medal, but I don’t want to think about it. I just want to think about one competition at a time and try to win in Prague [at the next IFSC Boulder World Cup].”

As seems to be a familiar sight in World Cups, there were five Japanese climbers in the final, and Amagasa Sohta stepped up onto the silver podium spot with 69.6pts topping two boulders and making the zone in the others.

Amagasa said: “I’m happy. Obviously, the best is to get a gold, but I really enjoyed this competition.”

With a top and two zones and with climbers already settled with their total scores, South Korea’s Lee Dohyun was in the position of a top on boulder four for a medal or walk away empty handed. A previous World Cup winner, Lee made the top in two attempts for a bronze medal on 69.5pts.

USA’s Colin Duffy sat in the medal positions for a while as he was the first to climb and finish all his boulders. Sitting on 59.6pts, he slowly moved down the standings agonisingly finishing in fourth in front of his home crowd.

Narasaki Meichi seemed to be struggling with an injury and finishing his final on 54.8pts was immediately heavily iced and strapped up on his forearm and wrist. That points tally was enough for fifth place.

France’s Mejdi Schalck finished in sixth on 54.4pts ahead of the Japanese climbers Fujiwaki Yuji in seventh on 44.3pts and Sugimoto Rei in eighth on 29.5pts.

The Salt Lake City final could potentially be Sugimoto’s last international appearance as he plans to call time on his career this year. His energy from the semi-final flowed through his teammates with Amagasa saying: “After semi-final I was so happy to be in the final with Rei and enjoy it with him and all the other Japanese team. I got a lot of energy from that. I was excited, a good excitement.”

After an emotional speech from Sugimoto to say farewell to the Salt Lake City crowd, attention now turns to Prague, Czechia on 6 to 8 June for the next IFSC Boulder World Cup.

For the men’s Boulder semi-final complete results click here.

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.