MEN’S BOULDER QUALIFICATION CONCLUDES WITH VAN DUYSEN AND NARASAKI ATOP

The second half of the opening day at the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Cup Salt Lake City 2023 concluded with two different generation of climbers at the top of the men’s Boulder ranking.

Indeed, two-time Boulder world champion Narasaki Tomoa of Japan shared first place with18-year-old Hannes Van Duysen of Belgium, whose first podium came at this year’s inaugural World Cup in Hachioji, Japan.

Narasaki, Van Duysen and three more climbers – Israel’s Marcus Nimrod, Great Britain’s Toby Roberts, and South Korea’s Chon Jongwon – finished the men’s qualification round with the perfect score of five tops, all separated by different numbers of attempts.

“I really enjoyed the boulder, there was a nice variety of moves,” said Roberts. “It was a slightly easier set, people were coming back early from their rotation, so you could tell there were a lot of tops happening, and I knew I needed a lot more tops to get into the semi-final. Tomorrow I’m going to take a rest day, and I’m psyched for the semi-final on Sunday.”

Just like in the women’s qualification round, Team Japan and Team USA had the largest contingents of climbers in the top 20: Zach Galla was the best athlete for the home team, with four tops and five zones.

“Out of the first three World Cups, this has been the most physical and handsy qualification round, a lot more grabbing and pulling than the other competitions, and that is something we especially like in Team USA,” Galla said. “I made into my first semi-final this season, I’m stoked to throw myself in and see what happens.”

Ross Fulkerson, Colin Duffy, Zander Waller, and Sean Bailey are the four other US athletes who advanced to the men’s semi-final.

The IFSC World Cup Salt Lake City 2023 will continue tomorrow with an action-packed schedule, featuring women’s Boulder semi-final at 10:00 (UTC-6:00), women’s Speed qualification at 15:45, women’s Boulder final at 18:00, and women’s Speed final at 20:00.

All four rounds will be live streamed on the IFSC YouTube channel.

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

Ross Fulkerson of the USA was one of five home athletes that qualified for the men's Boulder semi-final
Photo: Slobodan Miskovic/IFSC