ASIAN GAMES Sport climber Lee Do-hyun grabs silver in men's boulder
Lee Do-hyun of Korea competes in the men's boulder final in sport climbing at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at Portmesse Nagoya Exhibition Hall in Nagoya, Japan, Wednesday. Yonhap
NAGOYA, Japan — Sport climber Lee Do-hyun seized silver in the men's boulder event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Wednesday for Korea's first medal from the sport here.
Lee scored 49.7 points to finish second behind the Japanese star Sorato Anraku, who earned 74.5 point at Portmesse Nagoya Exhibition Hall in Nagoya. Tomoa Narasaki of Japan got the bronze with 44.9 points.
This was Lee's second straight Asian Games silver, following one in the combined event in 2023.
The objective of boulder is to complete the most routes in the fewest attempts on 4-meter walls. Climbers receive 25 points for finishing a route ("Top") and 10 points for reaching a designated midway hold ("Zone"), but lose 0.1 point for each unsuccessful attempt. With four problems presented in the final, the maximum score was 100 points.
Lee did not receive a point on his first boulder, while Anraku earned a perfect 25 points and Narasaki got 24.9 points.
But Lee bounced right back to earn 24.9 points and then 24.8 points in the next two boulders.
Anraku scored 24.8 points in the second boulder and 24.7 in the third boulder.
With one boulder remaining, Anraku was sitting at the top with 74.5 points. But after the Japanese climber failed to earn a point in the last boulder, it gave Lee an opening to pull off a massive comeback.
However, Lee himself could not earn any point in his last attempt.
Lee will take another shot at winning his first Asiad gold in the lead event -- with the semifinals on Friday and the final on Saturday.
Chon Jong-won, the 2018 Asiad men's combined champion, finished fifth on Wednesday with 30 points.