It was a China double gold day at the Asian Games Aichi-Nagoya 2026 with Yuetong Zhang winning the women’s Boulder and Shouhong Chu winning men’s Speed
Yuetong Zhang looked totally at peace when she took to the mats in the women’s Boulder final, coolly and calmly walking to each boulder to begin her attempts. Not rushing or running, just taking her time. And it worked for her.
Zhang along with many others flashed the first two boulders, so it was a game of two halves. Boulder three is where the podium started to take shape.
Japan’s Ai Mori was the first to top boulder three on her third attempt as others either got the zone, or like her teammate Miho Nonaka failed to register any points. When it was time for Zhang, her calm approach continued her flash streak taking her to the top of the leaderboard with 75pts and Mori her nearest rival with 74.8pts.
Mori was the first of the medal contenders out and flashed the zone for a score of 84.8pts. China’s Zhilu Luo also flashed the zone to take her points tally to 70.
Next was Zhang. She flashed the zone and continued to the top, had her hand on the top hold for victory, and as the crowd began to erupt, she fell. Two more failed attempts gave her a score of 85pts.
Nonaka had a chance to go into the medal spots if she could top, but she could only zone. It was down to South Korea’s Chaehyun Seo, but she had to flash the boulder for the win on countback.
Seo could only flash the zone which gave her a tally of 70pts moving her above Luo on countback meaning the podium was Zhang for gold, Mori for silver and Seo for bronze.
After her win Zhang said: “I was very anxious for a long time before the competition. I was thinking too much, and I also knew my level had really gone up. Every day I was telling myself that I was weak at this and weak at that.”
Looking back at boulder four Zhang said: “The first try was a real pity. I still feel really bad now. It felt like a group of people were hitting me and I couldn’t hit back.
“It was so hard to take. I sat there feeling bad for a long time. I think I could have topped that route, for sure, but I misjudged it.”
Luo was nudged off the podium by Seo in fourth with South Korea’s Heeju Noh in fifth and Nonaka just behind eventually finishing in sixth.
Singapore’s Vanessa Si Yinn Teng was seventh and teammate Sihui Natalie Goh was eighth.
Whether it was nerves or bad luck, false starts played a big role in the men’s Speed competition, but that is Speed racing. You have to start and you have to finish, and you have to control everything you can in between.
Indonesia’s Aditya Tri Syahria and Kazakhstan’s Damir Toktarov came through their semi-final both with a time of 4.78s with Tri Syahria just edging it on the third digit.
The other semi-final was where the pressure mounted. Japan’s Ryo Omasa made a false start with Iran’s Reza Alipour Shenazandifard high up the wall before he realised. He came down, took a moment to compose himself and get ready to race again.
Then, China’s Jianguo Long made a false start, which meant with only Alipour Shenazandifard and Long’s teammate Shouhong Chu left standing, they were through to the final.
The false starts didn’t end in the semi-final. With four climbers contesting three medals the pressure was on. Just like the women’s final the night before, it was down to three as Tri Syahria went too early.
When the medal race finished, Chu was the one celebrating with a time of 4.71s for gold. Alipour Shenazandifard took silver, the third Asian Games medal of his career, with a 5.36s run and Toktarov took bronze, and his first medal at senior level with 7.34s.
Talking about what it takes in Speed to win, Chu said: “Technique makes up maybe 60 or 70%, and focus makes up 30 or 40%. You need both. So the two things work together.”
Chu admitted to losing a bit of confidence in himself, and that things could have gone a bit differently: “I didn’t even want to come to the Asian Games. I had no confidence in myself at all. The turning point was after Madrid (World Climbing Series Comunidad de Madrid 2026). The gold medal was only part of it. I also talked to other people a lot and got to know my own character.”
Chu explained about his celebrations on the wall after he had tapped the pad for the win saying: “I said, ‘I’m from China’ in English.
“Because I want to tell everyone, tell the whole world, this gold medal belongs to China.”
The women and men will start their hunt for Lead medals on day 4 of the Asian Games with semi-finals for both.
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