Climber Wins Three World Cups in a Row
A standout performance by one of Japan's best all-round comp climbers of his generation
The Salt Lake City Boulder World Cup just wrapped in Utah as the only IFSC event in North America this year. You can read our comp report here. One of the highlights was Japan’s Anraku Sorato winning his third straight comp.
The IFSC has released this press release about the accomplishment: History for the young Japanese climber and a potential World Cup farewell from teammate Sugimoto.
Japan’s Anraku Sorato is on an IFSC Boulder World Cup roll. The Olympic silver medallist won his third gold medal in a row and equals Austria’s Kilian Fischhuber as the only men to accomplish that feat.
Anraku’s road to gold wasn’t all plain sailing though. While others topped the first boulder of the final, he could only make a zone. On boulder two, Anraku began his climb just before the clock had started and had to restart which meant a flash became a second attempt.
As seems to be the case though with Anraku, these things did not phase him. He flashed boulder three and needing a top on boulder four, duly obliged to secure a 84.4pts and the gold medal to the delight of the roaring Salt Lake City crowd.
After the podium with the gold around his neck, Anraku said: “I’m so happy to win in Salt Lake City. To get three gold medals this year is amazing. I want to win a fourth medal, but I don’t want to think about it. I just want to think about one competition at a time and try to win in Prague [at the next IFSC Boulder World Cup].”
Final Results
- Sorato Anraku (JPN) 84.4
- Sohta Amagasa (JPN) 69.6
- Dohyun Lee (KOR) 69.5
- Colin Duffy (USA) 59.6
- Meichi Narasaki (JPN) 54.8
- Mejdi Schalck (FRA) 54.4
- Yuji Fujiwaki (JPN) 44.3
- Rei Sugimoto (JPN) 29.5
