This year in Prague was the third Boulder World Cup the city has held and it felt right for it to be Adam Ondra's last one.
Ondra made swift work on the qualification boulders and reached the semi-final comfortably. He said after the qualification round,
“I feel happy. Even after topping out boulder five I was a little bit frustrated as I thought it’s not going to be enough as I messed up really badly on number three. It seems like it could be enough though. It feels amazing and I’m happy I will get to climb in the semis tomorrow. The crowd, especially as it’s only the qualification round, was amazing. I felt relaxed, a little nervous, but I can’t wait for tomorrow as it’s going to be huge. Physically I feel strong. Number one was a purely physical boulder and it hasn’t been topped, I was the closest person to do it, so makes me feel confident.”
He struggled on the first and last power boulders of the semi-final, like many other athletes. However, he topped the third coordination boulder to finish 15th.
Mejdi Schalck is back
Mejdi Schalck is back to winning ways, and you could see how much it meant to him.
His win in Prague was his first Boulder World Cup win in two years. His win is his fourth gold. Jérôme Meyer is the only Frenchman to have won more Boulder World Cup medals (11) than Schalck.
Last year he took time away from the World Cup circuit to try to qualify for the Olympics, only competing in the Seoul and Prague Boulder World Cups after the Olympics.
After the competition, Schalck said,
“It feels a bit like a comeback because last year I had a pretty hard year. I didn’t qualify for the Olympics, so I stayed focused and trained really hard this winter, so it’s a comeback. I’m back, and it feels good to be back.
I really liked all the boulders; it was a lot of coordination and dynamic boulders which is really my style, so I liked it.
The second was the hardest, I was the only climber to send it, and it was a big fight for that. It was crazy. The crowd was cheering, and it was amazing.”
Sorato Anraku didn't win for the first time this season, finishing second on count back to the semi-final. He was the only athlete to top the first power boulder in the semi-final, and you could see how hard he had to try.
Prague was his 9th World Cup medal. He has only missed out on a medal three times after reaching the final in his career. He did continue improving on his past performances in Prague. He was 7th in 2023 and 4th last year.
He said after the competition,
“Honestly, I’m not disappointed with the result. The final had a lot of coordination, I’m not bad at it, but I’m not great either. I have to say the boulders and the crowd here were amazing.”
Samuel Richard won the bronze medal, France's second. This is the first time he has reached the final and his first World Cup medal. Richard's won the Youth Boulder European Championship in Curno, Italy, last month. He also finished 2nd at the IFSC Europe Boulder Cup in Brussels this year. His previous highest IFSC place was 9th in Prague last year.
Richard said about the event,
“I felt pressure after semis but I was relieved I was in finals as it was a bit of a lifetime objective, and to medal too is crazy. I was relaxed in finals, shaking a little, but I was in the mood because I knew it was already good just making it there.”
The final round was a high-scoring one with lots of dynamic movement, with jumps on every boulder. Some athletes have criticised the style of the final boulders which started to resemble Parkour more and more, especially the second coordination boulder which featured a run across move.
Anraku's silver medal means he stays in the lead in the Boulder World Cup series. Schalck's win does reduce the difference down to 960 points. Sohta Amagasa's 4th place in Prague keeps him in third with 2405 points, 400 points ahead of Dohyun Lee.
Bertone makes it two and first medals for Calliet and Sekikawa
Oriane Bertone won her second gold medal after bad weather cancelled the final. This is also her second gold medal she has won in Prague. She last won in 2023, where she beat Janja Garnbret. Bertone has won 10 World Cup medals since she started competing on the World Cup circuit in 2021.
After the semi-final round, Bertone said,
“When I was in qualis I walked through the same corridors I did when I won, and I feel happy, and I want to show again I am able to do it. The first three comps were frustrating for me as I know I have the level to do great things, but I am so close yet not doing it. And if I could do it here, that would be so awesome.”
Agathe Calliet won the silver medal in Prague. Prague is her first World Cup medal, and she is the 20th French woman to win a Boulder World Cup medal. She won the bronze medal in Boulder at the European Championship in Villars last year behind Naïlé Meignan and Ayala Kerem.
Melody Sekikawa won the bronze medal, her first Boulder World Cup medal, becoming the 7th Japanese woman to win a Boulder World Cup medal. Prague would have been only her third World Cup final. Her medal also secures her a priority spot on the Japanese team for the World Championship in Seoul later this year.
The final results where decided by the semi-final scores due to the final being cancelled because of the weather. The organisers were worried about the structural integrity of the wall under strong gusts of winds up to 70kmph (43 mph). The spokesperson for the event said that the structure was designed to withstand winds only up to 10m/s, while there were gusts up to 14-17 m/s.
The final would have been the first time two British women were in a World Cup final ever. The last time something like this happened was in 2024, when Michaela Tracy and Shauna Coxsey were both in the Boulder World Championship final in Munich.
Emma Edwards and Erin McNiece both reached the final in Prague © Lena Drapella / IFSC
Bertone's win puts her in first place in the series with 3,220 points. She is ahead of Mao Nakamura, who struggled in the semi-final round in Prague and finished 19th. Nakamura is in second with 2,390 points. Sekikawa's third place moves her up into third in the series with 2,010 points, only 20 points ahead of Annie Sanders.
