Sports Bulletin Report
Innsbruck (Austria):-The final men’s Boulder event of the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) World Cup Series 2022 took place this evening in Innsbruck, Austria. The men’s Boulder final not only saw Tokyo 2020 Olympian Colin Duffy, of the USA, take his first ever IFSC World Cup gold medal, it also saw Japan’s Ogata Yoshiyuki crowned 2022 Boulder season champion.
Until this evening Duffy’s highest World Cup placement was third, following his bronze medal win in Lead at the IFSC World Cup Villars 2021. However, with three tops and four zones, the Olympian tonight claimed his first World Cup gold, gazing at the scoreboard in disbelief after seeing the competition’s final result.
“I was counting the attempts in my head, I thought that if Yoshi had flashed then he would have won, then as he had taken a few attempts on the first move, I started to realise that I had won the competition and I was in shock. I still am in shock!” said Duffy on his victory.
“I wouldn’t be here without the rest of the USA team athletes, the support and camaraderie that I share with the team is a key part of these World Cup experiences. I’m glad that they were here to cheer me on and support me to the gold medal,” he added.
In second place was Lee Dohyun, of South Korea, who climbed atop his first IFSC World Cup podium tonight with two tops and four zones. Lee narrowly missed out on a podium position at the previous Boulder World Cup in Brixen just weeks ago, where he placed fourth.
Japan’s Ogata Yoshiyuki took the bronze medal this evening with the same score as Lee, placing third due to using a higher number of attempts than the silver medallist. In a stellar 2022 season for the Japanese athlete, Ogata has stood atop five out of a possible six IFSC Boulder World Cup podiums this year, earning one gold, two silver, and two bronze medals. As such, Ogata claims the title of overall Boulder World Cup winner for 2022, with 3,990.0 points. Knowing what was at stake for the athlete, spectators lit up Innsbruck’s Kletterzentrum with their smartphones as Ogata took to the mats to take on his final boulder.
South Korean Olympian Chon Jongwon placed fourth in tonight’s final, with two tops and three zones, while Japan’s Fujii Kokoro and Germany’s Yannick Flohé placed fifth and sixth, respectively. The latter two obtained the same score as Chon, though placed lower due to their higher number of attempts.
Scoring a hat trick in the overall 2022 IFSC Boulder World Cup ranking, Japan also secured the second and third place positions, in addition to Ogata’s first place ranking. Olympian Narasaki Tomoa and Fujii Kokoro scored 3,405.0 and 3,110.0 points, respectively.
