Shanghai Olympic Qualifier Series: Ievgeniia Kazbekova & Lee Dohyun lead Boulder & Lead provisional rankings

The last chance to qualify for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 is finally on the table, as the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) kicked off in Shanghai, China, with the first phase of the Boulder & Lead qualification rounds.

A total of 92 athletes – 46 women and 46 men – took turns on the Boulder wall, facing four problems each and striving for a spot in the top 20.

South Korea’s Lee Dohyun placed first in the men’s provisional ranking mostly thanks to his three flashes on M2, M3, and M4, worth 75.0 of his 84.9 total points. Great Britain’s Hamish McArthur also topped three boulders out of four – M1, M2, and M4 in his case – and closed in second place with 84.6 points.

Current Boulder European champion Nico Uznik of Austria earned a spot in the top 10 with 64.5 points – only 0.1 ahead of Belgium’s Hannes Van Duysen and 0.1 behind Slovenia’s Anze Peharc.

"It felt good to finally start the competition, it has been a long time preparing and thinking about it, so it is really good to finally get started,” said Uznik at the end of his qualification. "It was quite okay, I had a good start in the first two boulders, got close in the third, so the result is quite good for me. With Lead coming tomorrow, I think I can do another good performance.

"I was a bit more nervous than usually, especially the last few days, but once it started, I felt calmer and more confident again, I had weird feelings coming into this competition, because here you are not necessarily fighting for the top spot, for a win, you just want to qualify. It was hard to get this mentality out of my head and focus on my performance and my climbing. It is not easy, and I’m probably not the only one who felt that way,” he added.

Women's Boulder & Lead qualification
Stopping only 0.2 shy of a perfect round, Ievgeniia Kazbekova of Ukraine secured the top spot in the women’s event, after topping all four boulders and only taking two additional attempts on W2.

Japanese duo Ito Futaba and Nonaka Miho followed closely in second and third place – respectively with 99.7 and 99.6 points. Tied with Nonaka in third is Camilla Moroni of Italy.

Closing on a high note with a top on her fourth and final problem, Argentina’s Valentina Aguado finished 32nd in the provisional ranking – 15.4 points away from 20th place.

"I think I could have done some things a little bit different, maybe have another top, but it is okay, I know that it is not finished because it is a two-discipline competition and tomorrow we have Lead. I have been training a lot in Lead, so I’m excited for tomorrow,” Aguado said.

"In Boulder you never know what you are going to find on the wall, while it is easier to train endurance for Lead. The boulders today were really fun, I am really happy about being here, I was not nervous because I know I have done all the work, now I am just going to enjoy and give a good fight.

"It is supposed to be like World Cup, because it is a Boulder competition, you have five minutes, but I think that the atmosphere is different, it is kind of an Olympic event, the Olympic spirit is around, which is very nice. What is different is the points system, it is weird to see four boulders in a qualification round, but the rest is similar to a regular World Cup,” concluded the Argentinian.

The Olympic Qualifier Series is composed of two legs, the first one in Shanghai from 16 to 19 May, and the second one in Budapest, Hungary, from 20 to 23 June. Every competition round at the OQS will be streamed live on Olympics.com.