Sport climber Seo Chae-hyun wins bronze for 2nd straight medal

Sport climber Seo Chae-hyun secured her second consecutive Asian Games medal on Thursday, taking home bronze in the women's boulder event. The competition took place at Portmesse Nagoya Exhibition Hall in Nagoya, central Japan. Seo finished in third place, accumulating 70 points, while Zhang Yuetong of China claimed gold with 85 points and Ai Mori of Japan earned silver with 84.8 points.

In boulder, the objective is to complete the most routes in the fewest attempts on 4-meter walls. Climbers earn 25 points for finishing a route, 10 points for reaching a designated midway hold, but lose 0.1 point for each unsuccessful attempt. There were four problems presented in the final, with the maximum score reaching 100 points.

Seo and Luo Zhilu of China both scored the same, but Seo claimed the tiebreaker victory due to her higher score in the previous phase, the semifinals, which were perfect 100 points. During the final, Seo scored full 25 points in each of her first two boulders, but only 10 points in each of her subsequent two attempts. Seo took silver in the combined event at the 2023 Asian Games, where the competition featured a mix of boulder and lead disciplines.