Toby Roberts is climbing's new boulder & lead champion. GETTY IMAGES

Great Britain’s Toby Roberts confidently climbed to the top spot of the men’s boulder and lead with 7,000 spectators cheering him on this Friday at the Paris Olympics. Sorato Anraku of Japan took the silver, and Austria’s Jakob Schubert rounded out the podium with the bronze.

Roberts ended the morning finals in a provisional third place. He proved to be a top contender in the boulder finals, breezing through the first problem and sending #3 in just three goes. The first British male climber to secure a place at the Olympics, he wowed the crowd making quick work of the first section of the lead final to overtake Schubert’s leading score with a 155.2. 



Schubert came up from being fifth in this morning’s boulder session with an early lead. He topped the table with a dyno to the top hold for a final score of 139.6. Sorato, leader of the board after the boulder final, kept his cool after his sensational morning performance that saw him as the only man to send boulder #1. 

The Japanese contender started out well, but began to have problems halfway up the wall. He seemed to have trouble maintaining his energy and fell just one hold from the top for a 145.4 finish.

Toby Roberts, 19, is the men's boulder & lead champion. GETTY IMAGES
Toby Roberts, 19, is the men's boulder & lead champion. GETTY IMAGES

Defending Olympic champion Alberto Gines Lopez had a frustrating start of the day with a failure to launch on the first boulder problem. The Spaniard’s time ran out before he could figure out how to start and finished still on the mats with no score. 

It didn’t seem to be his competition this morning, battling through the next three bouldering problems and finishing the boulder run with a subpar 24.1. He gave it his best shot on the lead final, but fell with just a few holds to the top. Just like that, he lost the Olympic crown, finishing the finals in seventh place. 

Thousand of spectators turned out for the men's boulder & lead finals at Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue. GETTY IMAGES
Thousand of spectators turned out for the men's boulder & lead finals at Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue. GETTY IMAGES

Climbing legend Adam Ondra also had trouble securing any points on one of the boulder problems. The Czech-native failed to send his first problem of the day and kept falling on a tricky sequence. With only a low zone on block #4, he ended the boulder round tied in last place with Gines Lopez. 

His lead performance was almost redeeming and was on his way to grab the top hold. Unfortunately, he fell just short of sending the route and exited the arena clearly disappointed. Sport climbing resumes on 10 August with the women’s boulder final at 10:15 CEST, followed by the lead final at 12:35 CEST.