Oriane Bertone, Dohyun Lee win first-ever Boulder World Cup gold at Prague

The fourth stage of the Boulder World Cup 2023 took place last weekend in Prague and will go down as one of the most exciting in recent memory. 185 athletes were registered to compete, the highest this season, with all eyes on two of the biggest names in this sport making their first appearance this season, namely Adam Ondra and Janja Garnbret. While Ondra had timed his comeback to appear in front of his home crowd, Garnbret had been forced to skip Hachioji, Seoul and Salt Lake City in favour of full rehabilitation after injuring her toe in training in February.

After the qualifications on Friday, the men's Finals took place on Saturday evening, with 20-year-old Lee Dohyun somewhat surprisingly leading the pack after the afternoon's Semis. Climbing in front of around five-thousand enthusiastic fans, France's Mejdi Schalck demonstrated his devastating form once again by flashing the first problem with a powerful double dyno, while Lee, Ogata Yoshiyuki, Yannick Flohé and Adam Ondra all required multiple attempts and Jan-Luca Posch failed to get past the zone. Problem #2 was set too easily and after Flohé's flash and Ondra's 3rd go send, Schalck piled on the pressure and flashed it, too. Dohyun and Ogata kept themselves in the running with their flashes, but at this point it very much looked like the winner of Hachioji and Seoul was on track for his third victory this season. Things suddenly changed on the boulder #3, a technical slab where he got no further than a minute zone hold. Ondra's footwork is notoriously outstanding and he sent it second go, while Dohyun latched onto the top, almost in disbelief, first go. Suddenly he was well in the lead, 3 tops in 4 attempts, compared to Ondra's 3 tops in 12 and Schalck's 2 tops. It was all at play on burley problem # 4 but actually this proved way too easy: everyone sent it first go, meaning that last out Lee deservedly won his first senior gold. His top and deep final bow to the crowd will be remembered, as will Flohé's brushing of the holds for the next athlete during his last 30 seconds on the mats. Sportsmanship at its finest.

The 3-day climbing marathon came to an end on Sunday evening with Oriane Bertone, seeded sixth fater the Semis, upsetting the entire field of competitors. She set the pace by sending #1 second go, but Nonaka Miho and then Janja Garnbret remained unperturbed as they flashed it. The 18-year-old Frenchwoman, second in both Seoul and Salt Lake City, then pulled out some magic and promptly flashed problems #2 and #3. Teammate Flavy Cohaut, in her first Boulder final ever, managed to send both these blocs after various attempts to eventually secure bronze, and the fact that no one else sent the delicate slab on #2 demonstrate just how competent Bertone has become. She needed no more than a zone on the last problem to win her first World Cup and that's exactly what she did. Miho Nonaka, Stasa Gejo, Ito Futaba and Cohaut all battled to the dying seconds of their round but like Bertone failed to get past the zone, then Garnbret, last out on a warm evening in the capital of the Czech Republic, flashed it with terrifying ease to prove why she's the Queen of climbing. But Sunday night, justly, belonged to Bertone.

1 Oriane Bertone FRA 3t4z 4 5
2 Janja Garnbret SLO 3t4z 6 7
3 Flavy Cohaut FRA 2t3z 6 12
4 Miho Nonaka JPN 1t3z 1 3
5 Stasa Gejo SRB 0t2z 0 8
6 Futaba Ito JPN 0t2z 0 9
7 Oceania Mackenzie AUS
8 Chaehyun Seo KOR
9 Jessica Pilz AUT
10 Julija Kruder SLO
11 Katja Debevec SLO
12 Giorgia Tesio ITA
13 Ayala Kerem ISR
14 Johanna Färber AUT
15 Selma Elhadj Mimoune FRA
16 Mia Aoyagi JPN
17 Nanako Kura JPN
18 Sofya Yokoyama SUI
19 Adriene Akiko Clark USA
20 Hélène Janicot FRA
21 Afra Hönig GER
21 Zhilu Luo CHN
23 Madison Fischer CAN
23 Petra Klingler SUI
25 Laura Rogora ITA
25 Melody Sekikawa JPN
27 Kyra Condie USA
27 Erin Mcneice GBR
27 Franziska Sterrer AUT
30 Cloe Coscoy USA
31 Giulia Medici ITA
31 Roxana Wienand GER
33 Sol Sa KOR
33 Yael Taub ISR
35 Lucija Tarkus SLO
35 Holly Toothill GBR
37 Chloe Caulier BEL
37 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR
39 Anne Ackre NOR
39 Michaela Smetanova CZE
41 Lisa Klem NED
41 Lucka Rakovec SLO
41 Yuetong Zhang CHN
44 Daria Nesterenko UKR
45 Eliska Adamovska CZE
45 Natalie Bärtschi SUI
47 Manon Hily FRA
47 Molly Thompson-Smith GBR
49 Valentina Aguado ARG
49 Ryu Nakagawa JPN
51 Laura Loikas FIN
51 Aleksandra Totkova BUL
53 Margarita Agambayeva KAZ
53 Quinn Mason USA
55 Evangelina Briggs CAN
55 Arina Jurcenko CZE
57 Jain Kim KOR
57 Leonie Lochner GER
59 Sunniva Eik Haave NOR
59 Barbora Zitkova CZE
61 Alejandra Contreras CHI
61 Arta Matelsone LAT
63 Zoe Garcia Molina ARG
63 Sandra Hopfensitz GER
65 Svana Bjarnason ISL
65 Miriam Diez Luengo ESP
65 Ema Galeova CZE
65 María Fernanda González Rámirez MEX
65 Elizabeth Sepulveda PUR
70 Evdoxia-Aikaterini Kallia GRE
71 Muykuay Silva CHI
72 Valeri Kremer ISR
73 Rosa Arnold FIN

1 Dohyun Lee KOR 4t4z 5 5
2 Adam Ondra CZE 4t4z 13 9
3 Mejdi Schalck FRA 3t4z 3 6
4 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 3t4z 5 5
5 Yannick Flohé GER 3t3z 9 7
6 Jan-Luca Posch AUT 1t3z 1 7
7 Sorato Anraku JPN
8 Colin Duffy USA
9 Mickael Mawem FRA
10 Tomoa Narasaki JPN
11 Ritsu Kayotani JPN
12 Simon Lorenzi BEL
13 Hannes Van Duysen BEL
14 Yufei Pan CHN
15 Toby Roberts GBR
16 Jongwon Chon KOR
17 Kokoro Fujii JPN
18 Jernej Kruder SLO
19 Maximillian Milne GBR
20 Nimrod Marcus ISR
21 Nikolay Rusev BUL
21 Gregor Vezonik SLO
23 Sean Bailey USA
23 Alexander Megos GER
25 Alberto Ginés López ESP
25 Gabriele Moroni ITA
27 Jakob Schubert AUT
27 Nicolai Uznik AUT
29 Daiki Sano JPN
29 Ao Yurikusa JPN
31 Paul Jenft FRA
31 Hannes Puman SWE
33 Edvards Gruzitis LAT
33 Jack Macdougall GBR
35 Zach Galla USA
35 Meichi Narasaki JPN
37 Zan Lovenjak Sudar SLO
37 James Pope GBR
39 Max Kleesattel GER
39 Mathieu Ternant FRA
41 Anze Peharc SLO
41 Thilo Jeldrik Schröter NOR
43 Ellis Ernsberger USA
43 Arthur Le Bris FRA
45 Elias Arriagada Krüger GER
45 Alex Khazanov ISR
47 Nicolas Collin BEL
47 Axel Lindfors FIN
49 Yunchan Song KOR
49 Lasse Von Freier GER
51 Julien Clémence SUI
51 Manuel Cornu FRA
53 Leo Avezou FRA
53 Hamish Mcarthur GBR
55 Luke Goh Wen Bin SGP
55 Jinbin Huang CHN
55 Slav Kirov BUL
55 Ka-Chun Yau HKG
59 Eneko Carretero Cruz ESP
60 Chi-Fung Au HKG
61 Hugo Hoyer USA
61 Guillermo Peinado Franganillo ESP
61 Aiden Yanev AUS
64 Nils Favre SUI
64 Michael O'neill IRL
66 Paul Brand NED
67 Minsung Han KOR
67 Fredrik Serlachius SWE
69 Guy Mcnamee CAN
69 Martin Stranik CZE
71 Marcello Bombardi ITA
71 Geva Levin ISR
73 Ram Levin ISR
73 Maxim Pare AUS
75 Peter Kuric SVK
75 Kindar Mcnamee CAN
77 Tuukka Simonen FIN
77 Stepan Stranik CZE
79 Jachym Cink CZE
79 Artyom Devyaterikov KAZ
81 Benjamin Ayala CHI
81 Robert Luby SVK
81 Richard Schwark BRA
84 Nathan Martin LUX
85 Sean Mccoll CAN
85 Alexey Panfilov KAZ
85 Benjamin Vargas CHI
88 Ioannis-Filippos Noel-Baker GRE
88 Simon Potucek CZE
90 Mark Scanlon IRL
91 Calrin Curtis RSA
91 Lautaro Nicolás Soria Sanchez ARG
93 Matias Ochoa Marcos ARG
93 Viktor Trpovski MKD
DNS Don Van Laere NED