Turnaround this Wednesday, August 7 at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the semi-final of the combined bouldering-difficulty event, in sport climbing.
Two days after securing 4th place provisionally after the bouldering round with 49.2 points, Sam Avezou fell quite low on the difficulty wall, scoring only 12.1 points. He finished 11th in the overall combined ranking.
His compatriot Paul Jenft, who started less well by finishing 9th in bouldering with 34.1 points, made a great comeback in the difficulty round. He scored an additional 57 points, which, given the performances of his competitors that day, allowed him to finish 6th in the overall combined ranking after the semi-finals.
Only the top eight climbers across both bouldering and difficulty events qualify for the final. Sam Avezou will therefore not be competing.
“Obviously, I am really very disappointed. It was a route that suited me well, I started off well in qualifying, I am in good shape at the moment. It’s hard to have done all this, all this work over the past few years and to fail like this… It’s quite tough,” he confided to France Télévisions after his run.
Climbers will particularly remember that none of them managed to reach the top of this difficulty wall. It was Spain’s Alberto Gines Lopez, crowned Olympic champion in the combined bouldering-difficulty-speed at Tokyo 2020, who won this second event by scoring an additional 72 points.
See you on Friday, August 9 at 12:35 PM for the final, where Paul Jenft will face off against the three best climbers from the semi-finals: Japan’s Anraku Sorato, Britain’s Toby Roberts, and the Czech Adam Ondra.
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