Today, August 5, 2021, the men's Olympic finals in the sport climbing disciplines speed, bouldering and lead will take place. We continuously summarize and show the results.
UPDATE 17.14 p.m.
The Spaniard Alberto Gines Lopez wins the first Olympic gold medal in the history of sport climbing. We summarize the final result of the men's Olympic final round for you in one separate article together. You can find today's events in the disciplines of bouldering and speed below.
Bouldering - result / summary: Coleman wins, Ondra only 6th, Schubert bottom
Did the route setters consider that the athletes could come out of the speed competition in a bad mood? In any case, the first boulder problem seems to be good-natured. Almost all participants top the boulder in the flash, except for Adam Ondra (two attempts). The Spaniard Alberto Gines Lopez does not make it to the top. The winner of the speed competition only gets the zone.
Boulder 2: Big advantage, Ondra can't find the momentum
Nathaniel Coleman is the only one who can top the second boulder. After a long and sweeping right-hand traverse, a powerful swing has to be absorbed. It is interesting to observe that all athletes swing two or three times, Tomoa Narasaki - the ex-gymnast - only once. According to his theory: aim and get started right away.
But the Japanese can only get the zone here. It is quite possible that the final move - far with the left on a small ledge and at the same time catching it with the toe hook on the right - is better for the bigger one. In any case, the tall Coleman managed it well, while the two rather small Narasaki and Duffy showed much more trouble here.
Adam Ondra doesn't find the momentum on Boulder 2, he sails past the zone and is the only one left empty. Everyone else creates the zone.
Boulder 3: A case for the museum?
Boulder problem number 3 could go straight to the Museum of Modern Arts in New York after the competition: an artful sculpture similar to a sun. Maybe a tribute to the land of the setting sun, or is it a flower? No, a nut, a brutal crack to be precise.
Nobody creates the top, we don't even begin to see a complete solution. While the first boulder problem was maybe a bit soft, this one is rather too hard. Symbolically, Adam Ondra makes it with a courageous scream at least one move further than everyone else, but then doesn't know what to do and gives up! You rarely see that. His effort is not even rewarded, because his high point falls in the ungrateful area between zone and top. There's nothing to be won there.
Tomoa Narasaki even leaves his last 20 seconds unused, the thing is apparently so unsolvable. And Mickael Mawem cannot convince the artistic sculpture to be inspected either. Maybe just a case for the museum ...
The athletes lie close together in the bouldering passage. Coleman is the only one with 2 tops and 3 zones, he wins the round. This is followed by Mawem, Naraski, Duffy and Schubert, all with a top and three zones. Ondra is only in 6th place with a top and two zones, Alberto Gines Lopez, the winner of the speed lap, brings up the rear.
Ranking list of the Olympic bouldering final
Exciting starting position
The starting position after two of three rounds is now extremely exciting. Mawem, Narasaki and Coleman have the same number of points (6) in the intermediate ranking, followed by Gines Lopez (7), Duffy (20), Ondra (24) and Schubert (35).
The lead specialists are lagging behind, but can still make everything clear with strong performances in the last lap. The combined format not only has disadvantages, for the last round (lead) the starting position couldn't be more exciting!
Intermediate ranking list Olympic final sport climbing
Speed - result / summary: Gines Lopez wins ahead of Narasaki, Ondra surpasses himself!
The speed final is already over, it was a shorter affair due to the absence of Bassa Mawem. Until recently, it was not really clear how his absence would be handled. The only thing that was certain was that Mawem would not be replaced by Megos (who was 9th in the qualifying round).
Now it was actually the case that Adam Ondra got the first lap and was sure to have fourth place. But it would be completely presumptuous to say here that Ondra stole fourth place. Nobody would have expected how the Czech surpassed himself today!
Speed climbing finals run list
Ondra beats herself in every run
In the first run he gave full throttle and set a personal best with 7.44. In the semifinals he was left behind against Gines Lopez - but again the Czech surpassed himself. At 7.03 he was only 7 hundredths of a second slower than the Spaniard and undercut his personal best by half a second!
But that's not all: in the run for 3rd place against Mickael Mawem, he set a new personal best with 6.86, but the Frenchman is a little faster. Mawem takes 3rd place. It is still a dream start for Ondra, who should now take the momentum into his favorite disciplines of bouldering and lead. And you can ask yourself: did Ondra just get a taste for speed?
Duffy with a false start, Tomoa falls in his skip
The Japanese favorite Tomoa Narasaki can prevail against Jakob Schubert and Mickael Mawem up to the speed final, but then falls behind against the Spaniard Gines Lopez. Ironically, in his Tomoa-Skip right after the start, he slips and lands in second place. The young Spaniard is the winner of the first round.
5th place went to the young American Colin Duffy, who had an unfortunate start to the day. Because of a false start, he loses the first lap before he could really get started. He won the race for 5th place against compatriot Coleman with a time of 6.35, but he doesn't look happy after that. He knows: without the false start he would have made it further up the ranking today.
The biggest mortgage goes to the Austrian Jakob Schubert, he finishes the speed run in 7th place and thus in second to last (8th place goes to the absent Bassa Mawem). Let's hope that Schubert can displace the high multiplication factor of 7 and that he takes on the three bouldering problems in good spirits. He had already shown mental strength in qualifying - nothing is lost yet.
Questionable regulations
Another addendum to the rather peculiar interpretation that only seven athletes are actually competing instead of the intended eight. Just because a final with a full number of participants would be more attractive for the audience, the question arises why Alex Megos was not allowed to move up. The argument that Bassa Mawem would then be deprived of his eighth place does not make sense insofar as the eighth place could easily have been filled twice in the end, as is customary in other Olympic sports.
Information on the rules of DAV competition climbing
In particular with regard to the fact that several athletes could have dropped out due to Covid at any time, the regulations should have anticipated the corresponding case. Imagine if several finalists suddenly were not allowed to compete due to quarantine - the Olympic premiere of sport climbing would have been quite thin.
So be it. We are happy to have seven competitors and look forward to the rest of the day!
Ranking list final speed climbing
Live stream Olympic final men
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Credits: Cover picture Daniel Gajda / IFSC