Paris 2024 Olympics - Men’s Semi-Final Lead
- Wednesday 7th August 2024
Roberts and McArthur finish 2nd and 8th in the Lead semi-final for both progress to Friday's Boulder and Lead Final.
In an exciting, low-scoring round Alberto Gines-Lopez, Toby Roberts and Adan Ondra took the top three spots in the men’s Lead Semi-Final today and all qualify for the Final; Hamish McArthur who finished the Lead in 8th place also qualified for the Finals.
Let’s say straight away that with both Toby Roberts and Hamish McArthur qualifying for the Finals, Team GB is the only squad with both men through to the last round; that’s a brilliant result so take a long, well-deserved bow fellas!!
Described as tricky, risky, complex and hard, today's Lead route for the men saw some brilliant performances but a significant number of surprisingly low falls from some very accomplished lead climbers. A surprised audience saw the likes of Jesse Gruper (USA), Sascha Lehmann (SUI), Sam Avezou (FRA) and Tomao Narasaki (JPN) all fall very low; all finished with c12pts each. The crowd were perhaps seven more shocked when Alex Megos's (GER) foot slipped and finished with only 24pts. None qualified for the Finals.
As in the Boulder round on Monday, Hamish McArthur climbed 3rd and was the first to impress. After a slightly shaky start, he quickly settled before ultimately falling off in the midst of a campus section with 45.1pts. Despite his disappointment falling off in what initially seemed a relatively low position Hamish’s early high point proved better than he thought and in the end wasn’t bettered until defending Olympic Champion Alberto Gines-Lopez posted a super smooth performance finally falling off with 72pts. Alberto’s Boulder and Lead scores together just topped the 100pts in total.
Adam Ondra climbed super smoothly and quickly; his 68.1pt Lead score took his combined score to 116.8pts in total. Jakob Schubert can usually be relied upon to do well on big occasions and although he climbed well he fell with “only” 54.1pts from the Lead giving him a total score to 98.8pts. Paul Jenft (FRA) and Colin Duffy (USA) both posted similar Lead results to Schubert; respectively they finished with 91.1pts and 87.9pts in total.
Only the two young guns were left to climb, Toby Roberts and Sorato Anraku. Climbing first, Toby had what looked like a shaky moment low down but quickly recovered and went on to climb very well before falling off at the same point as Adam Ondra; Toby’s 68.1pts for Lead gave him 122.2pts in total. Sorato Anraku, climbing last, was his usual polished self; he fell however slightly below Adam Ondra and Toby Roberts's position but 68pts in the Lead gave him a combined score of 137.0pts overall.
On the day Alberto Gines Lopez, Toby Roberts and Adam Ondra finished in the top three Lead spots. Crucially, however, once the Combined scores are added together Sorato Anraku, Toby Roberts and Adam Ondra were the top three climbers who qualified for Friday’s Final. They will be joined by Alberto Gines_lopez (4th), Jakob Schubert (5th), Paul Jenft (6th), Colin Duffy (7th) and Hamish McArthur (8th).
