MEN’S LEAD QUALIFICATION
There were more tops in the men’s qualification round with seven climbers registering the score. Ginés López had two for first with the other six successful on just one.
In joint-second, Suzuki Neo and Yoshida Satone led six Japanese climbers into the semi-final with the help of their tops, with Anraku Sorato another making a top and securing a semi-final spot.
Indonesia’s Putra Tri Ramadani made his first final in Koper in the last World Cup of the Lead season, and he has continued the good form to take a top and book his semi-final spot in fourth.
Sam Avezou climbed to the top of route one and secured his semi-final spot in fifth, and the final climber to make a top was Slovenia’s Luka Potocar who needed it to counteract a relatively low fall in his other attempt.
There were four South Korean climbers who made it through with Lee Dohyun in seventh, Noh Hyunseung in 21st, Cho Seungwoon in 23rd, and most notably Kwon Kibeom who finished in 24th as the penultimate climber of the day and pushing Olympic champion Toby Roberts out of the final semi-final spot.
The first climber out in the men’s competition was Canada’s Victor Baudrand. Finishing in 52nd out of the 75 starters, Baudrand enjoyed his experience in Seoul: “I was the first one out and I was pretty nervous. I was on route two and I saw those holds and thought you need good conditions and good friction and in the morning it was fresh, and no one had climbed it before so they felt sticky, and I think that helped me get a little higher than I would have expected to do.”
Heading out first to a lead competition has mixed responses from climbers, but for Baudrand it was a good thing: “Watching other people sometimes puts additional pressure, but here it was just me and the route. No one else’s beta, just mine, and that made for a really fun fight.”
Speaking about his qualification round in general Baudrand said: “You always finish a round thinking you could have done more, but in general I’m taking the positives and moving on and taking it into the next comp. Overall it was a great experience, and also the venue and crowd were great, so it was easy to feel comfortable.”
Full men’s Lead qualification results can be found here
Both the women’s and men’s Lead semi-finals and finals will take place on Friday 26 September.
News and updates about the event will be available on the IFSC website and on the Federation’s digital channels: Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and exclusively for the Chinese audience, Bilibili, Douyin, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu.