The IFSC opens this year's World Cup season with the Bouldering World Cup in Keqiao, China. This will be the second bouldering contest for the field since the Paris Olympic Games.
The first Bouldering World Cup heralds the IFSC The 2025 season begins: From April 18th to 20th, the elite of the international bouldering scene will meet at the Shaoxing Keqiao Yangshan Climbing Center, including Miho Nonaka, Sorato Anraku, Oriane Bertone and Olympic champion Toby Roberts.
Tomoa Narasaki, last year’s winner from Keqiao, will try to defend his title this weekend – Janja Garnbret, who won her 2024th World Cup gold at the Bouldering World Cup in Keqiao in 16, will not be represented at the season opener.
Numerous athletes with international World Cup experience will be competing from the DACH region, including Elias Arriagada Krüger, Timo Uznik and Sascha Lehmann in the men's category and Lucia Dörffel, Anna Apel and Sofya Yokoyama in the women's category.
New rules take effect for the first time
The event in Keqiao will also be the first time that the recently revised IFSC rule changes for the World Cup will be implemented in practice. Olympics 2024 A top bouldering challenge is worth 25 points, and a zone is worth 10 points. 0,1 points are deducted from the total score for each attempt.
Schedule and program
While the women and men will start the qualification together on Friday, the two semifinals and finals will take place on different days. According to the new World Cup-Rules in Keqiao also mean that there will be 24 athletes in the semi-finals instead of the previous 20, and there will be eight places in the final instead of the previous six.
Keqiao (GMT+8) is six hours ahead of Central European Summer Time (GMT+2). The times indicated refer to the local time in Keqiao.
- Friday, 18th of April 2024
09:00 Women's Qualification
16:00 PM Men's Qualification - Saturday, 19th of April 2024
12:00 Women's Semifinal
19:00 Final women - Sunday 20. April 2024
12:00 Men's Semifinal
19:00 p.m. Men’s final
Livestream: Geoblock on YouTube will remain in 2025
The local restrictions on YouTube live stream of the IFSC. Accordingly, viewers in Europe can watch the semifinals and finals live on Discovery + or the Eurosport Player track – but for a fee.
Alternatively, you can use a VPN client for the live stream on YouTube. We've listed the streams below.
Women's semifinal (Saturday 12:00, GMT+8)
Women's Final (Saturday 19:00 PM, GMT+8)
Men's semifinal (Sunday 12:00, GMT+8)
Men's Final (Sunday 19:00 PM, GMT+8)
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Credits cover photo: IFSC/Nakajima Kazushige