It seems the route setters, based on the few number of tops in the semi, made some late changes, resulting in too easy boulders in the final. All the podium topped all four boulders and Janja Garnbret won by doing them all first go. Noteworthy is that Slovenia, with just 2 million inhabitants, was superior by getting two golds and another two in the finals. 1. Janja Garnbret 44* SLO Eddie Fowke 2. Shauna Coxsey 44 GBR 3. Fanny Gibert 44 FRA 4. Lucka Rakovec 34 SLO 5. Jessica Pilz 34 AUT 6. Futaba Ito 33 JPN Complete results * In order to make it more understandable 8a has started to take out the T and z and just present the score with points.

Patti Wohner, who did two 8A's being 41 years old, is back on track after a muscle injury and has done two 7C+, 3D and Slow Dance in Bishop. "I struggled with "stiff muscles" for about a year and a half, trying to figure out what was going on. I ended up with pretty bad scapular winging in January which prevented me from climbing at all. Finally I started seeing a shoulder specialist, Jessi Delong in Bishop and she fixed me right up. I'm so grateful to her and I'm excited about getting outside again now that my muscles work again! I was having issues for about a year and a half where my muscles would not loosen up. I climbed as best I could at a lower level during that time. Its been about a month now that I've been feeling better and steadily getting stronger." Three months ago Patti released her first adventure novel Desert Dirtbag, where we can follow a gym climber who dreams climbing hard Hueco Tanks.

In possibly, the hardest ever boulder semifinal, Futabo Ito qualified to the final by just getting three zones. Shauna Coxey and Janja Garnbret were the only ones topping out two boulders. Complete results Among the male, Adam Ondra started first and topped out all four quite easily. In the end, Rei Kawamata was runner up with 2T4z as was the score for the Top-7 so the number of attempts made the cut. Interesting was that we saw possibly 30 attempts where the climbers touched the top but failed. All in all, 17 made four zones and all 20 made three zones.

The Boulder World Cup in Moscow has just started and Janja Garnbret walked away with a clean score onsighing all five boulders. (Normally the word flash is used for doing a boulder first try in competitions but in reality it is an onsight as no beta was given to the athletes.) Fanny Gibert won the second group and Austria got five semi-finalist, Jain Kim failed to make the semi again as in Meiringen. Complete results

Christof Rauch, who has done more than 500 boulders 8A to 8C the last five years although working full time, has done Graceland 8B+ in Allgäu. This was his fourth 8B+ the last four weeks and in 2019 he has done 42 boulders 8A and harder, including two 8C's. "Finally! Thought I could do it quicker, took me 4 sessions to put it down but had some bad luck last session. Pretty hard shouldermove, my left shoulder (slightly injured since a few years) hurted after every session but I wanted to link those rad moves sooo bad!"

Jernej Kruder and Rei Sugimoto won their respective group in Moscow. In total, Japan got seven into the semi Top-20 and they participated with just eight guys as the Narasaki brothers skipped Moscow. Other than that, Russia and France got three into the semi. Once again Jakob Schubert, Gregor Vezonik and Sean McColl did not make it to the semi as in Meiringen. Interesting is also that Adam Ondra was #10 in his group very close to have missed the semi. Complete results

Isabelle Faus reports on Insta that Keenan Takahashi has done The Story of Two World’s 8C in Cresciano.

Marine Thevenet, #7 in the Boulder World Cup in 2014, reports on Insta that she has done Fred Nicole's La danse des Balrogs original 8A+ in Branson, in just three sessions. In total she has now done 27 boulders 8A to 8B and her goal is to do 30 before turning in few months. (c) Clément Lechaptois "I prefer to spend my week-ends discovering boulders instead of climbing gym or during competitions. But it doesn't mean that I stopped climbing or training!"

Zhanan Zou, a.k.a. Bruce, has climbed Ty Landman’s Midnight Express 8B+ in Boulder Canyon, potentially becoming the first Chinese climber to climb the grade. Previously he had done two 8B's. Bruce started climbing at age 26 after moving from China to Boulder, Colorado in 2014. A week before the ascent of Midnight Express he successfully defended his PhD thesis in Mechanical Engineering. He wants to continue to pursue his research, and hopes to develop boulders in China, to open up a new level of climbing for Chinese climbers. Video finishing with screaming louder than Ondra and Sharma together :) (c) Cesar Valencia