Japan's Sorato Anraku has opened the 2026 Boulder World Cup season the way he ended the last one, climbing to victory in Keqiao on May 3 and reaffirming his place at the head of a Japanese contingent that has already taken over the discipline's all-time record book.
Anraku's win came in the first stop of the newly rebranded World Climbing Series, the IFSC competition circuit that begins in Keqiao before moving to Salt Lake City, Innsbruck and beyond through the summer. He posted 99.6 points in the semi-final to top the field and rode that momentum into a final where his lower attempt count proved decisive against France's Mejdi Schalck.
The defending champion was characteristically clinical about his own performance.
"On the first boulder my performance was so bad, but the others were good," Anraku said. "I like crimps so the second was probably my favourite. I'm constantly trying to hone my skills."
That focus on incremental improvement is consistent with how Anraku has dominated Boulder for two seasons. His Keqiao win marks his return to the top of the podium after closing the 2025 World Cup season as the discipline's most decorated competitor, including three consecutive Boulder series titles. The 18-year-old's run across the 2024 and 2025 seasons has produced one of the most sustained scoring patterns in the modern format.
Schalck, who has spent the last twelve months elevating his game to push the Japanese duo of Anraku and Tomoa Narasaki, was the only other climber to top all four boulders in the semi-final. His 99.2-point semi performance was within touching distance of Anraku's, and the gap in the final was decided by attempt count rather than tops.
The rest of the men's field underscored how aggressive the Asian and European contingents have become. Tomoa Narasaki finished third, with South Korea's Dohyun Lee and home favourite Yufei Pan rounding out the top five. The depth of climbers within reach of the podium remains the defining feature of the post-Paris Olympic boulder field.
The Keqiao opener also marked the IFSC's first outing under its rebranded World Climbing identity, a structural shift announced over the off-season as the federation worked to streamline its competition product ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic cycle. The new branding will carry through every competition stop on the 2026 calendar.
For Anraku, the win continues a rare run of consistency at the top of the sport. Few competitors in any climbing discipline have managed to retain primacy across an entire Olympic cycle, and Anraku will spend the next eighteen months attempting to hold that position through the lead-in to Los Angeles 2028.
The World Climbing Series rolls on next month, with Salt Lake City hosting the second Boulder stop. Anraku's lead in the early season standings is now the bar against which the rest of the field will be measured.
For the moment, the message from Keqiao is unambiguous: the Japan-led era of competition bouldering is alive and well, and the 2026 season has opened exactly the way 2025 ended.
