During the build-up, he had already warned. “Before thinking about the medals, the first objective is to get to the final and, once there, we will see what happens, but we have to go step by step,” said Alberto Ginés, with a low profile despite being the current (and first) Olympic climbing champion. His prudence, after a cycle of discreet results, was well on his way. This Monday, the Spaniard, after finishing 14th in the first part of the semi-finals, the bouldering one, left work ahead to be in the fight for the medals. This Wednesday, when the penultimate phase will be completed, he will have to climb back up to the first eight places in the difficulty rope, his specialty. His first challenge in Paris. It is not that far away. Step by step, as he himself said.
On a very hard, demanding wall, which did not allow any ‘top’ (the highest part, which awards 25 points) to be reached until well into the morning (in the end, five participants did so), Ginés did not start off with bad feelings, with 9.9 points in the first block, reaching the top with only one failed attempt. Then, placing third in the provisional classification, he secured another 9.7 credits. In the third block, however, in which no one could reach the top, the problems began, with nine failed attempts in a section that he was unable to decipher and which remained at 4.1 points. In the last block, also extremely difficult, he added another five points to finish with a total of 28.7, 5.5 from the cut for the final, set by the British Hamish McArthur.
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Leslie Romero, after her performance in Paris. Benoit TessierREUTERS
The day, which was difficult for everyone, but especially for Ginés, who has his greatest virtue on the difficult rope and is very demanding of himself, ended with a negative balance. “It reminded me a lot of the Pre-Olympic finals, in which none of us did anything. Preparing so much to not be able to make any top is quite frustrating. If it were just me, I would say it was my fault, but with so many… It is what it is, you have to accept it and, luckily, the tie-break will be on the rope, which is my strong point, so we will try to do our best,” said the Spaniard at the end of his rounds. Then, he would see the Japanese Sorato Anraku (69 points) and Tomoa Naraski (54.4) and the British Toby Roberts (54.1) rise to the top positions. The Olympic champion has work ahead of him, but his terrain is coming.
Leslie Romero, unbeatable debut
After Ginés’ performance, a double debutant, Leslie Romero, entered the action at Le Bourget Sport Climbing in Paris. Leslie Romero, the first Spanish Olympian in climbing, qualified for the quarter-finals of the Games in the speed category, which in this edition has been separated from the boulders and difficulty. With a time of 6.94 seconds in her first climb and one of 6.89 in the second, she passed the qualifying phase with the eighth best time. Then, beating Indonesian Rajiah Sallsabillah (with 7.26), the Spanish-Venezuelan secured the diploma to challenge the Polish Aleksandra Miroslaw (this Wednesday, from 12:35), who broke her own world record in her three ascents (6.06 and 6.21) of the day. The wall, which is 15 metres high on the climbs, will be higher than ever. In a discipline with many errors, “everything is possible”, as she said in the preview.
