Brooke Raboutou, Mejdi Schalck win Boulder World Cup 2023 debut in Hachioji

Good things do indeed come to those who wait. After placing second and third on innumerable occasions, last Saturday things finally aligned for Brooke Raboutou who, in front of a delirious crowd, won the Boulder World Cup 2023 debut at Hachioji in Japan. The 22-year-old American, prodigious daughter of former sport climbing champions Robyn Erbesfield and Didier Raboutou, secured her first ever gold medal with a crushing victory of 3 tops. Hannah Meul led the provisional ranking after the Semis and started off brilliantly by flashing block #1, but she failed to keep this momentum on next three problems and settled for silver with 1 top and 3 zones. All other finalists - Anon Matsufuji, Ayala Kerem, Zhilu Luo and Mia Krampl - failed to top out and were separated by their zones. Raboutou's victory breaks the Janja Garnbret - Natalia Grossman hegemony that saw this duo dominate the last 17 Boulder World Cups. Indeed, in order to find another athlete who stood on the top of the podium one has to go all the way back to Vail 2018 when Alex Puccio delighted her home crowd.

While the women's competition proved exciting, Saturday night's podium was a touching affair with tears of joy intermingling with tears of sadness as the athletes remembered their fellow competitor Christoph Schweiger who was killed in a tragic road accident a few weeks earlier. Meul and the entire German team had worn a black armband in mourning and after the event she explained "This competition was the hardest emotionally. The most important thing in this competition was to carry my teammate Christoph Schweiger in my heart. He was supposed to be here to climb and show what he could do. So, it was important to enjoy this gift that we have to be here and climb. The love we have and all share for climbing is something that cannot die, so I wanted to chase that spirit for him. He gave me a lot of power in the end."

The men's event on Sunday proved both intricate and powerful with young Mejdi Schalck proving why he's the most electric thing in bouldering since David Lama blazed onto the scene in 2006. Schalck secured his second victory with an amazing display of refined technique, raw strength and enraged determination, and his two tops and three zones could easily have been more. Hannes Van Duysen took silver for Belgium’s historic first ever World Cup medal in any discipline, while Schalck's teammate Paul Jenft put in a stunning performance to secure his first bronze medal. After an extremely tough Semifinal round (champions such as Tomoa Narasaki, Yannick Flohé and Yoshiyuki Ogata got no further than the zones) the problems proposed by the route setters in the final were pretty much spot on, and after the competition the move on block #4 that had stumped all was sent by Schalck in trainers as soon as he was told what to do. At the second Boulder World Cup in Seoul next weekend they'll be no stopping him.

1 Brooke Raboutou USA 3t4z 6 6
2 Hannah Meul GER 1t3z 1 8
3 Anon Matsufuji JPN 0t3z 0 7
4 Ayala Kerem ISR 0t3z 0 9
5 Zhilu Luo CHN 0t3z 0 11
6 Mia Krampl SLO 0t1z 0 9
7 Noa Shiran ISR
8 Natalia Grossman USA
8 Ai Mori JPN
10 Jessica Pilz AUT
11 Miho Nonaka JPN
12 Sofya Yokoyama SUI
13 Futaba Ito JPN
14 Nonoha Kume JPN
14 Chaehyun Seo KOR
16 Melody Sekikawa JPN
17 Lucia Dörffel GER
18 Camilla Moroni ITA
19 Selma Elhadj Mimoune FRA
20 Ryu Nakagawa JPN
21 Mashiro Kuzuu JPN
22 Sara Copar SLO
23 Agathe Calliet FRA
23 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR
25 Mia Aoyagi JPN
25 Giorgia Tesio ITA
27 Stasa Gejo SRB
27 Serika Okawachi JPN
29 Zélia Avezou FRA
29 Chloe Caulier BEL
31 Oriane Bertone FRA
31 Katja Debevec SLO
33 Kyra Condie USA
33 Petra Klingler SUI
35 Fanny Gibert FRA
35 Oceania Mackenzie AUS
37 Nanako Kura JPN
37 Anastasia Sanders USA
39 Laura Rogora ITA
39 Yejoo Seo KOR
39 Alannah Yip CAN
42 Johanna Färber AUT
43 Madison Fischer CAN
43 Sol Sa KOR
45 Erin Mcneice GBR
45 Yael Taub ISR
47 Franziska Sterrer AUT
47 Roxana Wienand GER
49 Cloe Coscoy USA
49 Kylie Cullen USA
51 Zoe Peetermans GBR
51 Hongchun Xiang CHN
53 Liv Egli SUI
53 Hung Ying Lee TPE
53 Jennifer Wood GBR
56 Eliska Adamovska CZE
57 Indiana Chapman CAN
57 Andrea Kümin SUI
59 Regine Storå NOR
59 Yuetong Zhang CHN
61 Gayeong Oh KOR
61 Aleksandra Totkova BUL
63 Bianka Janecka POL
63 Babette Roy CAN
63 Maya Stasiuk AUS
66 Michaela Smetanova CZE
67 Prateeksha Arun IND
67 Anja Köhler BRA
67 Anna Lechner GER
67 Liana Nicole Mora PHI
71 Ingrid Kindlihagen NOR
72 Emily Scott AUS
73 Bianca Magalhaes De Castro BRA
74 Elizabeth Sepulveda PUR
DNS Laura Loikas FIN
DNS Ting-Chen Yao TPE

1 Mejdi Schalck FRA 2t3z 7 7
2 Hannes Van Duysen BEL 1t3z 2 11
3 Paul Jenft FRA 1t3z 3 3
4 Kokoro Fujii JPN 0t3z 0 9
5 Sorato Anraku JPN 0t3z 0 11
6 Jongwon Chon KOR 0t3z 0 13
7 Dohyun Lee KOR
8 Meichi Narasaki JPN
9 Edvards Gruzitis LAT
10 Tomoa Narasaki JPN
11 Yannick Flohé GER
12 Leo Avezou FRA
13 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
14 Mathieu Ternant FRA
15 Mickael Mawem FRA
16 Yuji Inoue JPN
16 Ritsu Kayotani JPN
18 Nicolai Uznik AUT
19 Anze Peharc SLO
20 James Pope GBR
21 Daiki Sano JPN
21 Stefan Scherz AUT
23 Sam Avezou FRA
23 Tomoaki Takata JPN
25 Maximillian Milne GBR
25 Toby Roberts GBR
27 Colin Duffy USA
27 Jakob Schubert AUT
29 Sungsu Lee KOR
29 Hannes Puman SWE
31 Hugo Hoyer USA
31 Alex Khazanov ISR
33 Max Kleesattel GER
33 Simon Lorenzi BEL
35 Nicolas Collin BEL
35 Junta Sekiguchi JPN
37 Zan Lovenjak Sudar SLO
37 Nimrod Marcus ISR
39 Sean Bailey USA
39 Hamish McArthur GBR
41 Jernej Kruder SLO
41 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
43 Katsura Konishi JPN
43 Ram Levin ISR
45 Manuel Cornu FRA
45 Rei Sugimoto JPN
47 Dillon Countryman USA
47 Geva Levin ISR
49 Oscar Baudrand CAN
49 Slav Kirov BUL
51 Elias Arriagada Krüger GER
51 Jan-Luca Posch AUT
53 Alberto Ginés López ESP
53 Luke Goh Wen Bin SGP
53 Ka-Chun Yau HKG
56 Zach Galla USA
57 Victor Baudrand CAN
57 Dylan Parks AUS
59 Nils Favre SUI
59 Axel Lindfors FIN
61 Jesse Grupper USA
61 Ardch Intrachupongse THA
63 Nathan Martin LUX
63 Yufei Pan CHN
65 Sascha Lehmann SUI
65 Luka Potocar SLO
65 Filip Schenk ITA
68 Thilo Jeldrik Schröter NOR
69 Hossein Familrohani IRI
69 Felipe Ho Foganholo BRA
71 Cheung-Chi Shoji Chan HKG
71 Jinbin Huang CHN
73 Anton Young Hong Nielsen DEN
73 Christian Wagner CHI
75 Theis Lindegren Elfenbein DEN
75 Nikolay Rusev BUL
77 Rodrigo Iasi Hanada BRA
77 Wan Tong Lok MAC
79 Chingkheinganba Maibam IND
79 Guy Mcnamee CAN
79 Jakub Zietek POL
82 Ciarán Scanlon IRL
83 Lokesh Ranjan IND
83 Shinyeong Yun KOR
85 Dayan Akhtar GBR
85 Liam Healy AUS
85 Diego Lequerica Buscaglia PER
88 Mark Scanlon IRL
89 Iman Mora PHI
89 Ying-Chieh Wen TPE
91 John Joseph Veloria PHI