NARASAKI POCKETS GOLD IN MORIOKA, OGATA AND FUJII COMPLETE THE SWEEP

An extremely action-packed day closed in Morioka, Iwate, Japan, where the final International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Cup event of the 2022 season is currently taking place.

After moving five climbers into the final round, Team Japan’s domination culminated in a triple medal. Narasaki Tomoa put the icing on the cake of a fantastic month of October, adding a World Cup gold to the three Asian Championships titles he won in Seoul, South Korea, earlier this month.

“It’s been definitely a tough round, but I’m glad I have won the first-ever World Cup medal in this format,” said Narasaki. “To be honest, this morning I didn’t really feel like having two rounds on the same day, but I kept my focus and gave my best.”

Scoring 84.3 points in the Boulder round, and 72.1 in the Lead one, Narasaki placed well ahead of his closest rival – Ogata Yoshiyuki – who signed the best performance on the Lead wall, but only solved one of the four Boulder problems. Ogata’s final score was 138.4.

Completing the Japanese podium sweep, Fujii Kokoro finished in third place with 132.6.

Despite being in the top position halfway through the final, thanks to a solid Boulder round where he flashed three boulders out of four, France’s Paul Jenft eventually concluded the final in fourth place, scoring 129.7 points.

Yannick Flohé of Germany followed in fifth position with 128.5 points, while two more Japanese climbers – Homma Taisei and Kawamata Rei – respectively placed sixth with 117.5 points, and seventh with 109.5.

Sean Bailey of the USA took eighth position with 76.6 points.

For the full results of the men’s Boulder & Lead event click here.

The IFSC Boulder & Lead World Cup in Morioka will conclude tomorrow with the women’s final, starting at 2:40 PM (UTC+9:00).

News and updates about the event will be available on the IFSC official website, and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok.