Yonatan Katz (centre) climbs to the gold (Photo World Climbing)
Israel’s Yonatan Katz took gold in Salt Lake City, USA on the last boulder of the men’s final in only his second appearance at the World Climbing Series level
After two flashed zones and a flash on boulder three in the final, Katz was trailing behind Great Britain’s Max Milne on the leaderboard heading into the tricky coordination boulder problem that all other finalists before him couldn’t even zone.
The ask for the second time finalist was big, but Katz didn’t let it phase him and wowed the crowd on his fourth attempt not only reaching the zone but going all the way to the top to give him a score of 69.7pts. All he had to do now was wait for Milne.
Katz already knew he had a medal with that top as he was at the top of the standings with only Milne and Japan’s Rei Kawamata to come, and the Japanese climber couldn’t overhaul him even with a flash, so it was going to be gold or silver.
Kawamata was next out and made the zone in three attempts which put him in the bronze medal position with only Milne left to climb. The Japanese climbers 54.2pts secured him a podium spot. Now the fight for top spot.
With 59.7pts, Milne needed to flash the zone to be equal on points but go ahead because of his semi-final performance and countback. The Brit however failed to make an impression on the last boulder not making the zone at all, staying on his score, staying in second place and seeing Katz take the win.
Talking straight after his gold was confirmed Katz said: “I don’t know how it feels, it’s probably going to take a while to sink in. Two days ago I made my childhood dream come true when I made a World Climbing Series semis.
“Today, I wasn’t going to miss my opportunity in semis, and I found my way into the final. My goal was never to just participate in a final it was to compete in one so I was going to give it my all as it could be my last ever one so I wanted to enjoy it as much as I could.”
Analysing the final boulder that brought him the win Katz said: “The last move is something I’ve been working on, I mean I’m good at coordination, but that swing move specifically I’ve been working on for like one or two years so when i saw it i knew exactly what I needed to do.
“In iso I was walking around talking to myself saying ‘I need to get to the last move. I need to get to the last move’, but I didn’t think I’d only have one chance. I just turned off my brain, went for it, and managed to grab the jug and heard the crowd, then I screamed as loud as I could.”
The podium, and the win, for Katz means he is only the second climber from Israel in any discipline to win a medal at a World Climbing Series after Alex Khazanov in 2018.
Behind the podium of Katz, Milne and Kawamata was Japan’s Sohta Amagasa with a score of 44.4pts.
Fifth was France’s Max Bertone on 35pts and sixth was Israel’s Or Mark who scored 34.8pts in his first ever final. Seventh was Great Britain’s Dayan Akhtar with 34.5pts and Germany’s Elias Krüger Arriagada was eighth with 19.2pts.
