SHAOXING, China, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Slovenia's Janja Garnbret and Tomoa Narasaki of Japan won the women's and men's boulder titles respectively as the 2024 sport climbing World Cup opener concluded at the Shaoxing Keqiao Yangshan Climbing Center on Wednesday.

The men's qualification round, scheduled for Monday, was canceled due to rainfall. As a result, all participants competed in the semifinals on Wednesday morning with the qualification format, with the top 20 advancing to the finals in the evening.

The 27-year-old veteran Narasaki and his compatriot Sorato Anraku, 10 years younger than him, both topped two routes and achieved four zone points in the finals. Narasaki managed to secure the gold by attempting fewer times than his teammate.

"It feels great to be back on the highest podium of the World Cup. This sets a good start for preparing for the Olympics," said Narasaki, who had already earned a berth at the Paris Olympics last year, emphasizing that his goal is to win the gold in Paris.

Hannes Van Duysen of Belgium joined the Japanese duo on the podium.

On Tuesday, Garnbret showed her domination in the women's category again by solving all four boulder problems in the finals with only five attempts, adding another World Cup championship to her 41-title collection.

The reigning Olympic champion, who had missed half of last season due to a toe injury, expressed her joy at returning to the field in good shape.

"This first World Cup is definitely better than the one of last season. This year I was injury-free, and I've been training hard over the winter, so I felt physically strong and mentally calm and confident today," said Garnbret, adding that she was excited to compete back in China, where she had won a women's boulder title five years ago.

Italy's Camila Moroni won her first World Cup medal by topping two of the finals' boulders for silver, while home favourite Luo Zhilu had her first podium finish in 20 months after securing a bronze.

After the match, the usually composed Luo shed tears at the press conference. "This marks my second time stepping onto the World Cup podium after two years. The first time was during the competition in Italy, also my first World Cup. I had no expectations back then," she recalled.

"But this time, clinching third place again, I feel like I've undergone tremendous growth as my form wasn't great throughout last year, and I put in a lot of effort during the winter training," said the 18-year-old.

The next leg of the IFSC World Cup will kick off in Wujiang, China on Friday. Enditem

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