Sports Bulletin Report
Innsbruck (Austria): Another sold-out crowd celebrated the medal winners of the men’s Boulder final in Innsbruck, Austria, where the fourth IFSC World Cup event of the season is currently underway.
Climbing in front of 3,000 roaring fans, Team Japan absolutely dominated the final, but not in the way many would have expected. Indeed, current Boulder World Cup champion and world ranking number one Anraku Sorato only concluded in third place with two tops and three zones, failing to top the fourth and decisive boulder and winning his first World Cup bronze medal in the discipline.
The top of the podium was taken by 24-year-old Amagasa Sohta, securing the first gold of his career with a three-top, three-zone performance that closed in spectacular fashion, as the climber from Kanagawa topped M4 in four attempts.
Amagasa said: “I can’t believe it, it feels like a dream! My performance today was very good, almost perfect. Now I will skip Lead and focus on the event in Prague. Arigato!”
Completing the all-Japanese podium. Narasaki Meichi won his second consecutive silver in Innsbruck, also closing the round with three tops and three zones, but also a higher number of attempts to top than Amagasa.
Future Paris 2024 Olympian Toby Roberts of Great Britain and first-time final participant Elias Arriagada Krüger of Germany finished in fourth and fifth position. Roberts with two tops and two zones, Arriagada Krüger with one top and three zones.
It is the third time that the Japanese national team have swept the men’s Boulder podium: first it happened in 2021, also in Innsbruck, with Ogata Yoshiyuki, Narasaki Tomoa, and Fujii Kokoro respectively taking gold, silver, and bronze. The following season, in Seoul, South Korea, Fujii won gold, Narasaki won silver, and Ogata won bronze.
