Japanese take golden brace in bouldering

Japan’s Kai Harada and compatriot Miho Nonaka dominated Bouldering finals for both men and women respectively at Aspire Park on Monday.Miho Nonaka showed her quality with the help of her lucky charm, the bag that she carries chalk in during the Games. The customised bag has the face of cartoon character Bob Squarepants, “my favourite,” as she said. And she said: “I love Bob and I wanted to carry him with me all the time.”Besides that hand from Bob, 22-year-old Nonaka put up an extraordinary show. She climbed all four tops. The only athlete who made it, and grabbed the gold medal in her last try.“It feels great. I get to top all the tops, so I am extremely satisfied.”Switzerland’s Petra Klingler made sure that the competition (for the gold medal) survived until the last moment. She managed to solve the fourth and final problem, as they call each route to the top. And she waited for a miracle. Although the Swiss ended up with the silver medal, she deserved the gold for her “fair play”.“I am also happy for Miho. She is my friend, she is strong and she was better tonight. If she finished in front of me, it means she was better. I wanted to win but I would never wish for her to fall,” she said carrying that big smile she had when she was trying to get to the top.After a while, in the men’s final Kai Harada and Keita Watabe fought each other for the gold medal.Harada was the winner, exactly as it happened in the semi-final. He made it to three of the four tops, like his compatriot, while Watabe solved only two problems.But it was domination by Japan in a sport that is being added to the Olympic Games, starting Tokyo next year.“I am happy but not fully,” he said. “I wanted to get on four tops, not three,” Harada explained later. He even felt that Japan can win gold at Tokyo 2020.As for Watabe, he said, “It was real easy. They picked easy problems to be solved. But I only made two tops.”