00:00The highly anticipated return of sport climbing at the Summer Olympics is finally here.
00:06We're dropped right into the action on day one with the men's boulder
00:11semifinal and the women's speed qualification and elimination rounds.
00:18The boulder semifinal was a low-scoring affair and for a while the audience might have feared they'd see no tops.
00:27However, commentator Shauna Coxsey lifted some kind of curse with the hopeful line
00:33I think we're gonna see some tops.
00:34Jakob Schubert must have heard her because he managed to record the first top on his first boulder.
00:44At the close of the semifinal the tally was only six tops made on 80 attempts
00:50of the 20 athletes each trying four boulders.
00:54Jakob Schubert, Adam Ondra, Sam Avezu, Toby Roberts and Tomoa Narasaki all made one top
01:02and Sorato Andraku managed to get two.
01:05Needless to say those cents put them at the top of the leaderboard and created some serious
01:10distance from climbers without tops who will have their work cut out for them on Wednesday
01:15when they tackle the lead wall.
01:17The boulder semifinal started slow with a punishing and powerful first boulder problem.
01:23The climbers came out in an order based on the current IFSC world ranking and the lower
01:29ranked climbers struggled with the first move of the boulder.
01:32It was the British Hamish MacArthur who stuck it first but the difficulty of B1 was very consistent.
01:39Reaching and using the high zone proved too difficult for most climbers
01:44and only a couple of them got near the top.
01:46Yannick Flohe and Adam Ondra managed to touch the final hold but we had to wait until Austrian
01:52powerhouse Jakob Schubert showed up to see the boulder topped.
01:56Toby Roberts got extremely close and for a moment it seemed like he topped but when he
02:01jumped down he signaled to the brushing team to get to work so he must have realized his
02:06match didn't count.
02:08Japanese climber Sorato Andraku was the final climber to climb since he was the only climber
02:14since he sits on top of the world rankings and he joined Jakob as one of only two climbers
02:19to top B1.
02:21Boulder 2 looked really fun and most climbers made it too and passed the high zone for 10
02:26points with relative ease.
02:28But the final move proved too much for the field.
02:31Alberto Ginés López, Sama Vesu and Colin Duffy seemed to get very close but once again
02:37it was only Sorato, the youngest climber of the field, who managed to stick the coordination
02:43move and match the final hold for 25 points, taking a massive lead on the field.
02:49Boulder 3 started with two coordination jumps that gave most of the field a lot of problems.
02:55But the real crux was the jump from the high zone.
02:58Yi Dohyun seemed to come closest to sticking that move but no one ended up getting the
03:03top.
03:04Finally, Boulder 4 was a very tricky slab and getting to the high zone for 10 points
03:10was a challenge for the first half of the field.
03:12Hannes van Deuzen and Paul Genthe managed to reach the high zone but it wasn't until
03:17Sama Vesu came onto the mat that we saw a top and the French crowd had a reason to go
03:23wild.
03:23Adam Ondra, Tomo Narasaki and Toby Roberts were the only climbers to channel Sam's
03:29solid footwork and composure and send the problem as well.
03:37At the end of the day, it's not the order in which the climbers finish but the amount
03:42of points they get that counts.
03:44So climbers with tops have a massive benefit going into the lead semifinal and have the
03:50highest chance to get a good combined score.
03:53The two Japanese climbers, Narasaki and Anraku, arguably the favorites for Boulder, came in
03:59first and second place and combined world champion so we'll be looking to him to qualify
04:04for finals near the top of the field.
04:07Toby Roberts performed very well with his top as did Sam Avesu who delivered massively
04:13for the French home crowd in Le Bourget.
04:15Alberto Ginés López sits surprisingly low in the Boulder ranking since he was definitely
04:21one to watch based on his performance in the qualifier series.
04:28Before we have a look at what happened in the Women's Speed Qualification and Elimination
04:32rounds, we're having a closer look at our very own Belgian climber Hannes van Duijzen's
04:37performance.
04:38Hannes was in the lead after his four boulders for a long time until the tops started coming
04:44in which pushed him down the ranking.
04:47On Boulder 1, he flashed the high zone which is the main reason for his edge over the climbers
04:53who also scored somewhere near 34 points.
04:57On Boulder 2, he made the high zone in three tries but couldn't stick the top.
05:01No one else aside from Sorato Anraku did so that was no reason to panic.
05:06On Boulder 3, he only made the low zone once again in three tries.
05:11The second coordination move caused him too much trouble.
05:15On Boulder 4, he was up against a tricky slab which is his bread and butter and he was the
05:21first athlete to make the high zone.
05:23He nearly stuck the top but bounced off the wall a little too much and had to settle for
05:29the 10 points.
05:31He ended up in 7th with 34.2 points as the first climber without tops and is in a good
05:38position going into lead climbing.
05:40To state the obvious for those less familiar with the format, Hannes will want his combined
05:45score to put him in the top 8 after the lead event on Wednesday, August 7th if he wants
05:52to progress to the finals.
05:54Come on Hannes!
05:55The speed events start off with a seeding round and an elimination round.
06:00In the seeding round, athletes get two runs, one in each lane, to set a good time, based
06:06on which they are put into the roster for the elimination heats.
06:10The fastest climber takes on the slowest climbers and the winners of the elimination heats
06:15go on to the quarterfinals which are held in a couple of days.
06:19The seeding round started off with some technical difficulties.
06:23In the first two races of the seeding round, one of the two clocks that climbers have to
06:27hit at the top of the wall to finish their run didn't work.
06:31After about 15 minutes of troubleshooting and repairs, Chinese climber Zhou Yafei and
06:37Indonesian athlete Desak Mademaderi Takusumadewi had to reclimb their first seeding time.
06:43Things went fast once the competition was over.
06:46Things went fast once the competition was underway.
06:49And the Tokyo Olympic record of 6.84 seconds held by Aleksandra Miroslav got destroyed
06:57instantly and repeatedly.
06:58In quick succession, Zhou Yafei, Desak Mademaderi Takusumadewi and US climber Emma Hunt pushed
07:05the Olympic record down.
07:07Yafei from 6.84 to 6.54, Desak Mademaderi pushed it to 6.52 and Emma Hunt to 6.36.
07:16But next up was world record holder Aleksandra Miroslav herself.
07:20And she went on to not only push the brand new Olympic record set by Emma Hunt down some
07:26more, she broke her own world record that previously stood at 6.24 by climbing the speed
07:34route in 6.21 seconds in the first lane and in 6.06 seconds in the second lane.
07:41After the seeding round, the roster was set for the Elims.
07:45Miroslav was up first and sent South Africa's Anja Holder packing with a 6.10 second run.
07:53Emma Hunt stayed consistent and progressed over Manon Lebon.
07:57Next, Polish climber Aleksandra Kaluka beat New Zealand's Sarah Tetzlaff.
08:01There was no upset just yet.
08:03And in the next heat, Yafei beat Beatrice Colli.
08:07However, the times in these heats got closer and closer together.
08:11But still, Dong beat Vic Lione in the next heat.
08:14Rita Kusumadewi, the current world champ, sent the USA's Piper Kelly home in a close call.
08:21And in the next heat, Spanish climber Leslie Adriana Romero Perez
08:26caused the first upset, beating Indonesia's Radja Salsabila,
08:30who fell early in her run but who progressed to the quarterfinals anyway
08:35because she has the fastest time of the losing climbers.
08:38A brutal moment took place when, because of the slip,
08:41Salsabila pushed out Beatrice Colli from the fastest loser spot in the final elimination heat.
08:48Here's the roster for the quarterfinals, coming up on Wednesday, August 7th.
08:53That's all from Day 1.
08:55If you want to learn more about sport climbing at the Summer Olympics,
08:58check out our Everything You Need To Know video.
09:01And we'll see you tomorrow for the Day 2 post-show.
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