Canada's Sean McColl fails to advance to sport climbing's Olympic debut final
North Vancouver native lands outside of top 8 in qualifying with 17th-place finish
Canadian Sean McColl will not advance to the finals of sport climbing's debut at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The 33-year-old from North Vancouver, B.C., had been part of the effort to get the sport onto the Olympic program. When the men's qualifying rounds got underway at Aomi Urban Sports Park on Tuesday, he was part of the first-ever group of competitors.
McColl's combined score of 1680 had him finishing in 17th place. Only the top eight men move on to the finals.
Mickael Mawem of France topped the field with a combined score of 33.
In his fastest heat of the speed event, McColl propelled himself up the 15-metre wall in a personal best time of 6.93 seconds to rank 14th.
McColl also finished 15th in bouldering and managed 35-plus moves to finish eighth in lead.
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Missed cut or not, McColl made history as the first Canadian to compete in Olympic sport climbing.
"It's hard to put into words," he said. "I can tell the story of how it happened, but we're here on the ground. I'm proud."
Reflecting on his competition, McColl added: "At the end of the day, I have a great story to tell, and it was a lot of fun."
While there are three separate disciplines — speed, bouldering and lead climbing — the Olympics will be combining them, since only one medal per gender will be awarded.
Athletes will have all three of their finishes in each discipline — such as second place or third place — multiplied together to determine a final score. The person with the lowest combined total will get the gold.
McColl has 34 World Cup medals to his name, specializing in lead climbing and bouldering. At the 2019 world championship, he placed 10th in the combined event to punch his ticket to Tokyo.
Big guns qualify
Superstar Adam Ondra of the Czech Republic, five-time world champion, placed 18th after speed, but managed to secure his spot after coming third in bouldering, with two tops and three zones, and finishing fourth in lead. With a combined score of 216, Ondra placed fifth in qualifying.
Japan's Tamoa Narasaki, the 2019 combined world champion, qualified in second with a score of 56. Known for his bouldering, he placed second in that event, as well as in speed with a time of 5.94, while finishing 14th in lead.
Jakob Schubert of Austria managed to keep himself in the top eight with a first-place finish in lead. The two-time world champion recovered from a 12th place in speed and a disappointing 7th in bouldering to finish with a combined total of 84.
Bassa Mawem, Mickael's brother, also secured his spot with a blistering 5.45-second, first-place finish in speed. However, the Frenchman's place in the final could be in doubt after appearing to injure his arm in the lead competition.
Should Bassa be unable to continue, Alexander Megos of Germany, who finished 9th in qualifying, would end up in Thursday's final.
Men's combined qualification results:
- Mickael Mawem of France (speed 3rd, bouldering 1st, lead 11th) combined total: 33
- Narasaki Tomoa of Japan (speed 2nd, bouldering 2nd, lead 14th) combined total: 56
- Colin Duffy of U.S. (speed 6th, bouldering 5th, lead 2nd) combined total: 60
- Jakob Schubert of Austria (speed 12th, bouldering 7th, lead 1st) combined total: 84
- Adam Ondra of Czech Republic (speed 18th, bouldering 3rd, lead 4th) combined total: 216
- Alberto Gines Lopez of Spain (speed 7th, bouldering 14th, lead 3rd) combined total: 294
- Bassa Mawem of France (speed 1st, bouldering 18th, lead 20th) combined total: 360
- Nathaniel Coleman of U.S. (speed 10th, bouldering 11th, lead 5th) combined total: 550
- Alexander Megos of Germany (speed 19th, bouldering 6th, lead 6th) combined total: 684
- 17th Sean McColl of Canada (speed 14th, bouldering 15th, lead 8th) combined total: 1680
With files from The Canadian Press
