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After Monday’s too-stiff bouldering round, in which even the best boulderers earned relatively few points, today’s lead semi-final offered the lead specialists a chance to earn some serious points and get back in the running for the final. But the planners had other plans – they created a wild, tricky route that put some of the best in the world to shame.

This is how it went

The first climbers, South African Mel Jans van Rensburg and Australian Campbell Harrison, made it through the non-scorable holds further down the route, but van Rensburg only managed seven points to Harrison’s admirable 14. The competition became more exciting when Britain’s Hamish McCarthur, who had finished eighth in the bouldering round on Monday with 34.2 points, far exceeded Rensburg and Harrison’s high scores – a feat that seemed even more impressive (even in hindsight) when most of the field later fell behind him. He was eventually bested by a powerful Campus sequence halfway down the route, and his 45.1 points were enough (thanks to some huge upsets) to put him into the final in eighth place.

The next climber, Slovenian Luka Potočar, slipped on the 24-point hold. China’s Pan Yufei fought through several slips and fell even further. American star climber Jesse Grupper was held by his belayer on the short rope at the end of the first sequence, setting a new theme for the day: he misinterpreted a move deep down the route and fell on the 12-point hold. That was certainly disappointing – but nothing to be ashamed of: the same move later fell five other climbers, including some greats.

Then came Alberto Ginés López, the Tokyo gold medalist and lead specialist, and took the sections we’d just seen half a dozen climbers struggle on with aplomb. He rested on the same holds McArthur had fallen from, drew applause from the crowd as he effortlessly climbed through the next section, and then climbed past some moves that I didn’t realize how difficult they were until I later saw numerous competitors fall off them. Ginés López reached the headwall and climbed higher than any other competitor – but couldn’t find a body position from which to attach a quickdraw, and ended up falling on the 72-point hold. That was more than enough to make up for his relatively poor bouldering round (he started the day in 14th place with just 28.7 points).

The next climber, the great Frenchman Paul Jenft, found some clever new sequences through the powerful lower moves and mastered the sideways Campus sequence with ease. He fell several moves lower than Ginés López, and his 57 points initially seemed insufficient to compensate for his low boulder score (34.1 points). Adam Ondra climbed the route in style, almost reaching Ginés López’s highest point, and was the first climber to secure a place in the final. Colin Duffy needed to reach hold 60 – behind Ondra and Ginés López, but ahead of Paul Jenft – to secure a place in the final. But he fell two holds below – so he had to hope that subsequent climbers made mistakes.

Which they did.

Switzerland’s Sascha Lehmann, who has won several World Cup lead events, ended his Olympic run after falling on the same move that spit out Grupper. Then Frenchman Sam Avezou, Japan’s Tomoa Narasaki, South Korean Lee Dohyun and Belgian Hannes Van Duysen also slipped. Germans Yannick Flohé and Alex Megos both managed the move but slipped several moves higher up, ruining their Olympic chances. (The biggest surprises were Narasaki, who came into the lead in second place and seemed almost certain of a place in the final – and Megos, whose recent silver medal at the IFSC World Cup in Innsbruck demonstrated his lead fitness.)

With each of these climbers’ falls, the scores of Paul Jenft, Colin Duffy and Hamish McArthur increased, moving them all towards finalists. They also lowered the requirements for the final three climbers – Jakob Schubert, Toby Roberts and Sorato Anraku – who all had good bouldering rounds. Jakob Schubert, for example, only needed 26 points to qualify – and he achieved them effortlessly by climbing through the Campus Traverse and falling on the same move as Colin Duffy. Toby Roberts, on the other hand, only needed to reach the 16th hold, which made the audience nervous as we knew he would have to hold the move on the 13-point hold that so many climbers had fallen from. But Roberts managed to reach Adam Ondra’s highest point on the headwall despite a surprise foot break quite low. By this point, the route had already spit out so many climbers so far down that the last climber, Sorato Anraku, would have qualified for the final even if he hadn’t even attempted the lead route. But he didn’t know that. He promptly climbed to the same spot that Ondra and Roberts had reached – one hold below Ginés López.

analysis

The setting

The starting position in today’s final was almost excellent – but “almost” is not what you want to see at the Olympics. We should never see six out of 20 competitors fall on the same move, especially when that move is at the beginning of the route.

In the climbers’ defense, every climber has fallen trying the same uncreative method (with a straight hip hinge and right push off a very smooth right foothold), while most successful climbers have executed the move with (a) a clever right toe hook, (b) dropping the right knee instead of a straight knee, or (c) a low heel hook. Still, such a sequence would be better placed much higher up the route to separate the good from the great, rather than raising our blood pressure—while simultaneously breaking the hearts of the athletes who worked so hard to get here.

Furthermore, three of the four climbers who reached the headwall – Ondra, Roberts and Anraku – fell on the same move, and the only athlete who climbed higher (Ginés López) only managed to do so (a) in one move and (b) by saving energy by skipping a quickdraw. Only Roberts managed to clip that quickdraw – something that cost an extreme amount of energy and ended his attempt to reach the summit. And Anraku and Ondra both paused and tried to find their body position for the quickdraw. We never saw anyone get anywhere near the anchors.

Given the Setzers’ complete miscalculation in the bouldering round on Monday, I have to admit that I am now losing faith in the Setzer team being able to give these men an exciting competition. I hope they prove me wrong in the final on Friday.

What awaits us in the final

Despite some big surprises – and despite the fact that we didn’t get to see the kind of show we expected – the list of finalists is a nice mix of expected names and exciting surprises. (Hamish McArthur, 22, is one of them; he’s only made the finals at two World Cups, both in lead, and climbed brilliantly this week.) Thanks to the far-too-hard bouldering round, the skills are heavily skewed towards lead specialists, with Roberts, Ondra, Ginés López, Schubert, Duffy and McArthur all expressing a preference for that discipline. However, everyone present except McArthur and Ginés López also medalled in a bouldering round. And Anraku seems to find everything equally easy.

If the set designers do it right, it should be an excellent show.

Semi-final results in the men’s bouldering and lead competition

1. Sorato Anraku: 137.0 (Boulder: 69; Lead: 68.0)
2. Toby Roberts: 122.2 (54.1; 68.1)
3. Adam Ondra: 116.8 (48.7; 68.1)
4. Alberto Ginés López: 100.7 (28.7; 72.0)
5. Jacob Schubert: 98.8 (44.7; 54.1)
6. Paul Jenft: 91.1 (34.1; 57.0)
7. Colin Duffy: 87.9 (33.8; 54.1)
8. Hamish McArthur: 79.3 (34.2, 45.1)
9. Yannick Flohé: 68.8 (29.7; 39.1)
10. Tomoa Narasaki: 66.5 (54.4; 12.1)
11. Sam Avezou: 61.3 (49.2; 12.1)
12. Pan Yufei: 59.1 (29.0; 30.1)
13. Alexander Megos: 48.7 (24.7; 24.0)
14. Hannes Van Duysen: 46.3 (34.3; 12.0)
15. Lee Dohyun: 46.0 (34.0; 12.0)
16. Luka Potocar: 43.6 (19.6; 24.0)
17. Sascha Lehmann: 36.1 (24.0; 12.1)
18. Jesse Grupper: 30.9 (18.9; 12.0)
19. Campbell Harrison: 23.4 (9.4, 14.0)
20. Mel Janse van Rensburg: 16.5 (9.4; 7.1)