(Olympics) Lee Do-hyun finishes 10th in bouldering semifinal in sport climbing

Lee Do-hyun finished 10th in the bouldering semifinal of the men's sport climbing combined event at the Paris Olympics on Monday, a disappointing result for the South Korean medal hopeful. The combined event will determine rankings based on athletes' performances in bouldering and lead climbing. The objective of bouldering is to scale multiple routes with the fewest attempts within a time limit in a problem-solving mission. In lead climbing, athletes get one attempt to ascend as high as they can on a route set on a 15-meter wall within six minutes. Lee arrived at Le Bourget Sport Climbing Venue in Le Bourget, just north of Paris, as world No. 3 in bouldering and No. 10 in lead. He won the combined silver medal at the Asian Games last year. In the bouldering competition, athletes faced four problems to solve and earned 25 points for reaching the top hold in a single attempt. They received 10 points for reaching the high zone or five points for reaching the low zone. They faced a 0.1-point deduction for ea ch failed attempt before securing their hold. In his four problems, Lee received 9.6, 9.9, 9.5 and 5.0 points for 34.0 points total. Sorato Anraku of Japan, world No. 1 in both bouldering and lead, topped the field with 69.0 points, followed by countryman Tomoa Narasaki with 54.4 points. Only six of the 20 climbers on Monday made it to the top hold. The lead semifinal is Wednesday. The top eight athletes in the semifinal will advance to the final scheduled for Friday. Lee, son of the former national climbing team head coach Lee Chang-hyun, said he didn't heed his father's advice to have fun at the Olympics. "I was a little too nervous to enjoy myself," the junior Lee said. "I didn't think I'd be this wound up. I didn't manage my climb as well as I should have." As for the degree of difficulty of Monday's problems, Lee said, "There were athletes who solved them. It's not impossible to solve them. I just wasn't good enough." The 21-year-old said he will try to make up the ground in the lead event. "I w ill try my best to qualify for the final," Lee said. "I should be able to build on this experience and perform better from now on." Source: Yonhap News Agency