Seo Chae-hyun of Korea works on a problem during the women's boulder final of sport climbing at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 at Portmesse Nagoya Exhibition Hall in Nagoya, Japan, on Oct. 1.YONHAP
Sport climber Seo Chae-hyun won her second straight Asian Games medal on Thursday with bronze in the women's boulder event.
Seo finished third with 70 points, as Zhang Yuetong of China took gold with 85 points and Ai Mori of Japan grabbed silver with 84.8 points at Portmesse Nagoya Exhibition Hall in Nagoya, Japan.
The objective of boulder is to complete the most routes in the fewest attempts on 4-meter (13-foot) walls. Climbers receive 25 points for finishing a route, known as a top, and 10 points for reaching a designated midway hold, known as a zone, but lose 0.1 point for each unsuccessful attempt. With four problems presented in the final, the maximum score was 100 points.
Seo had the same score as Luo Zhilu of China but won the tiebreaker because she had the higher score in the previous phase, the semifinals, with a perfect 100 points.
In the final, Seo earned the full 25 points in each of her first two boulders but scored just 10 points in each of her next two.
Seo won silver behind Mori in the combined event at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, where the competition was a mix of boulder and lead, in which the goal is to ascend as high as possible on a route set on a 15-meter wall within six minutes.
In Hangzhou, the final was canceled due to inclement weather and the medals were awarded based on climbers' scores from the semifinals and qualification.
Seo is considered a better climber in lead than boulder. She is No. 2 in the lead world rankings but No. 30 in the boulder rankings.
Seo Chae-hyun of Korea falls short of topping the fourth problem during the women's boulder final of sport climbing at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 at Portmesse Nagoya Exhibition Hall in Nagoya, Japan, on Oct. 1.YONHAP
"I have been concentrating on the lead event, and so I thought I may not be able to compete with those who focus on boulder," Seo said. "I just enjoyed the event from the semifinals to the final, and I only worried about my own performance. After I did so well in the semifinals, I thought maybe I could do something here. But I didn't put any pressure on myself to finish first in the final."
The women's lead competition starts with the semifinals on Friday and will wrap up with the final on Saturday.
"I won silver in Hangzhou and bronze here today," Seo said. "I want to win gold to complete my medal collection."
In Thursday's other sport climbing event, the men's speed, both Korean entrants, Jo Jin-yong and Kim Dong-jun, were eliminated in the quarterfinals.
