Tops, Tops, and More Tops

On Saturday, the fourth men's Boulder World Cup of the 2023 season was held in Prague, Czech Republic. After an absence from World Cup competition, Adam Ondra returned to the boulder circuit in front of a home crowd and made his way into the finals after a tough semi-final round. The finals saw five of the six finalists crush most of the problems quickly, with lots of impressive flashes. A send train took off on the final bloc with all six athletes flashing the problem.

While there were more tops than the route setters likely would have wanted, the attempt numbers were considerably different between athletes, allowing for clear separation in the final rankings. South Korea's Dohyun Lee won gold after topping all four problems. He took two attempts to complete the first problem and then he made quick work of the other three, flashing them all. Before this win, the 20-year-old had one World Cup silver medal to his name.

"I can't believe it, I’m just so happy," said Lee after the event. "Thank you all for the support."

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Czech climber Adam Ondra triumphantly returned to the World Cup podium in second place in front of the Prague crowd. Like Lee, he also topped all four problems. It took him 12 attempts to achieve his four tops, putting him behind Lee. The first problem's coordination-focused sequence gave him trouble in particular, racking up his number of attempts.

"It's been so nice to be back on the circuit, especially in my home country," said Ondra. "It's been 13 years since the last World Cup event in Czechia, and the only one I participated in was in my hometown of Brno when I was 16 and I barely missed the final. It was so frustrating, so this is a good revenge!"

France's Mejdi Schalck took bronze after topping three problems, and reaching zone on the other. Yoshiyuki Ogata and Yannick Flohé also achieved this score, but they took more attempts to do so and therefore missed the podium. With gold medals in Hachioji and Seoul and this bronze in Prague, Schalck is the men's Boulder World Cup current frontrunner.

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The next Boulder World Cup will be held this weekend from June 9 to 11 in Brixen, Italy. Friday June 9 will feature the men's and women's qualification round. The women's semi-final and final will be held on Saturday June 10 and the men's semi-final and final will run on Sunday June 11.