Seo Chae-hyun wins gold in women's lead climbing at 2026 Asian Games

NAGOYA, Japan, Oct. 3 (Yonhap) -- Sport climber Seo Chae-hyun won the gold medal in the women's lead event at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday, with fellow South Korean Lee Do-hyun taking home the men's lead bronze medal later in the day.

Seo topped the route in the women's lead final at the Port Messe Nagoya Exhibition Hall in Nagoya, central Japan.

She edged out Ai Mori of Japan, who scored 47+, for her first career Asian Games gold medal.

Seo won bronze in the women's boulder, a problem-solving discipline in climbing, on Thursday, and lead has long been Seo's main event. The 22-year-old proved on Saturday why she is the top Asian in the lead world rankings at No. 2.

In lead, the objective for climbers is to ascend as high as possible on a route set on a 15-meter wall within six minutes.

Climbers each earn 25 points for reaching and controlling the final top hold of a boulder problem and 10 points for reaching a designated zone hold and making a movement to stabilize or advance the climb. The "+" sign is added to their score if they move toward the next hold but fail to secure it. Climbers also lose 0.1 point for each unsuccessful attempt.

Seo was the only one in the eight-climber final to score the maximum "Top," meaning she successfully clipped her rope into the final quickdraw and controlled the last hold.

Both Seo and Mori had earned the Top score in the semifinals Friday, with Seo last to perform in the final. Right after Mori put up her high score, Seo outscored everyone to become the first South Korean female climber with an Asiad title.

At the 2023 Asiad, Seo took silver behind Mori in the combined event, which was a mix of boulder and lead events.

The final back then was canceled due to inclement weather and the medals were awarded based on climbers' scores from the semifinals and qualification.

In the men's lead final Saturday, Lee Do-hyun grabbed bronze with 38 points. Neo Suzuki of Japan claimed the gold medal with 40+, and another Japanese athlete, Satone Yoshida, got the bronze with 38+.

Pan Yufei of China also finished with 38 points, but Lee held the tiebreaker because he had a higher score in the previous phase, the semifinals, with 33+, compared to Pan's 23.

This was Lee's second medal in Nagoya, following his silver in boulder from Wednesday.