Olympics Sport Climbing Mens Final

SPORT CLIMBING TOKYO 2020 

MENS FINALS

Day 3

Men’s Combined Speed Final

Slips, a false start and personal bests, the speed final had it all! Coming into the event, Mickael Mawem and Tamoa Narasaki where the favourites after their times on Tuesday and French athlete Bassa Mawem having to step down from the final after an injury in the Lead qualification. After the first round, resulting in a false start from USA Colin Duffy, Japans Tamoa Narasaki and Spains Alberto Gines Lopez made the final speed climb to fight for 1st and 2nd place. Both athletes were off to a great start, however a few moves later, Tamoa slipped, allowing Alberto to take the lead and the current top spot. 

Men’s Combined Bouldering Final

Bloc 1 was back on slab, and had two approaches to the opening moves. Alberto Gines Lopez, opted for a static approach but couldn’t make the moves past the zone. Mickael Mawem, Nathaniel Coleman, Jacob Schubert and Colin Duffy all flashed Bloc 1, and Adam Ondra slipped off the final moves. Bloc 2 was a massive sidewards dyno to a thin edge then straight into a left hand gaston. All athletes made the dyno and zone hold but struggled to figure out the top move sequence. On Nathaniel Coleman’s third attempt, he figured out the route setters intention of a toe hook catch making him the only athlete to top Bloc 2 and moving into first place going into the third and final bloc. Bloc 3 visually appeared to give a nod to a Japanese ‘Rising Sun’, and although a beautiful bloc, didn’t quite work on a spectators level with no tops and all athletes gaining the zone hold. With two tops, Nathaniel took the top stop for the bouldering. 

Men’s Combined Lead Final

Going into the final round it was painfully close with Mawem, Narasaki and Coleman all joint top with 6 points, closely followed by Gines Lopez on 7, Duffy on 20, Ondra on 24 and lastly Schubert on 35. This meant that it was still anyones game with the final route defining the podium positions. Tamoa was out first, and gave a mega performance gaining hold 33 and setting an impressive high point. Second out was Mickael, who is not known for his lead climbing. He struggled half way through in the tricky traverse sequence and couldn’t make the rest work resulting in a midway fall at hold 23. This meant with a relatively strong performance from any of the remaining competitors, medals were still on the cards. Next was Coleman, again a boulderer not known as a particularly strong competition lead climber. He well and truly shocked the crowd, putting in a great performance gaining the highest point so far – hold 34 which shot him into first place. Ondra was next. He needed to gain the highest point on the route to be in a chance to podium. He looked super composed and fluid. Fast as always but controlled. He quickly passed the 34 mark looking super strong. As he entered the head wall, he started to look tired and after gaining hold 42 he gave one last push and fell with a score of 42+. Next out was the young Spanish climber Alberto Gines Lopez. After his performance in this morning’s speed comp he was a serious contender for a medal and ended up reaching hold 38. Although not beating Ondra, the Gold medal was still well in sight. At this point, with the young America Colin Duffy and Jakob Schubert still to climb, the podium was still wide open. Colin Duffy, who surprised the crowd at Tuesdays qualifications again put in a stellar performance out climbing Gines Lopez gaining hold 40. It all came down to the last climb. If Schubert topped, Ondra was out of medals, if however he passed Gines Lopez, Ondra would take the gold. To say Jacob Schubert gave the performance of his life was an understatement. He quickly passed holds 23, 33 and 34, the sequence that saw Coleman and Gines Lopez pumped out, he cried through bringing him to the head wall. At hold 40 he passed Duffy’s high point and still looked incredibly relaxed. He rested and with one final push, passed Ondra highpoint topping the route. 

This incredible top, meant the male favourite coming into the competition Adam Ondra was out of the medals. It secured Jacob Schubert with a Bronze, Nathaniel Coleman with Silver and the young Spaniard Alberto Gines Lopez took the Gold making him the first ever Sport Climbing Olympic champion. 

Rank	Country	Name	Speed Points	Bouldering Points	Lead Points	Total Points
Gold	ESP	GINES LOPEZ Alberto	1	7	4	28
Silver	USA	COLEMAN Nathaniel	6	1	5	30
Bronze	AUT	SCHUBERT Jakob	7	5	1	35
4	JPN	NARASAKI Tomoa	2	3	6	36
5	FRA	MAWEM Mickael	3	2	7	42
6	CZE	ONDRA Adam	4	6	2	48
7	USA	DUFFY Colin	5	4	3	60
8	FRA	MAWEM Bassa	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS

Tomorrow sees the women’s Sport Climbing final!

@jonglassberg @louderthan11