Brooke Raboutou and Hidemasa Nishidi are the Youth A Lead World Champions. Hidemasa is the only one in Moscow who topped all four routes and he actually cruised the final route. Two weeks ago, the 15 year old was #11 in the Arco WC. Last year Brooke was #9 in a Lead WC and #10 in a Boulder WC. 1. Brooke Raboutou USA - Hidemasa Nishidi JPN 2. Futaba Ito JPN - Luka Potocar SLO 3. Sandra Lettner AUT - Katsura Konishi JPN Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke Interesting is that Alberto Gines, who was #7 in the last WC in Arco, was #5 and Laura Rogora was #6. The level in this category is extremely high and anybody in the final seems to also be able to be Top-15 also in the World Cup.

Meichi Narasaki took his second gold in Moscow in another great show where he skipped the second last hold and made a huge dyno to the last hold. Vita Lukan, bronze in boulder, won among the female with a nice and smooth style. 1. Vita Lukan SLO - Meichi Narasaki JPN 2. Nolwenn Arc FRA - Jakub Konecy CZE 3. Nina Arthaud FRA - Kai Harada JPN Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke The Juniors competed on the same route as the Youth A and interesting is that among the boys, the younger category had equal or better results among the Top-6 ranked.

Japan continues to dominate Bouldering in the Moscow Youth World Championship. In Youth B, they got two golds and two bronzes in great finals with almost perfect route setting were all boulders were done. Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke 1. Rei Kawamata 44 - Natsuki Tanii 34 (6) 2. Thomas Podolan 34 (4) - Naile Meignan 34 (8) 3. Nukui Ryoei 34 (5) - Hana Kudo 24 Rei, who also won last year, did his first 8B+ this summer. He has no trainer and his training is just made of my working and repeating the high class boulders at his gym.

Stefano Ghisolfi has done his 17th 9a, Pure Dreaming in Arco, which Adam Ondra put up this spring. " It would be a hard 9a if Adam wouldn't find this kneebar after the first section of the route, so it is "just" 9a." (c) Sara Grippo In the Lead World Cup, the Italian is #2 after having won one event out of four. Currently he is training hard often in Innsbruck in order to prepare for the upcoming World Championship next month.

Kind of strange finals for Youth A in bouldering. A bit too easy for the boys and too hard for the girls. All three medalists among the male got almost identical results as they all did four tops in just five tries. The two best did take the four zones in five tries meanwhile the bronze guy needed five tries. For the female, only two of the boulders were done and the winner, Laura Rogara flashed them both. (c) Eddie Fowke Complete results 1. Laura Rogora 23 - Sam Avezou 44 (5/4) 2. Lucka Rakovec 14 (4) - Eneko Carretero 44 (5/4) 3. Futaba Ito 14 (5) - Nathan Martin 44 /5/5) Overall, Japan has been the best country in bouldering with one gold and two bronzes. The big sensation is that Austria has not had one finalists!

Alex Honnold sat a new standard in climbing by free solo the 30 pitches Freerider 7c (+) in Yosemite last year. In his scorecard, including 949 ascents, he commented, "Solo! 3:56 on route. The end of an epic life dream. Such an experience. Logged it as a boulder problem - thanks 8a!" The National Geographic documentary Free Solo is set to open on theaters September 28.

Chaehyun Seo, who last week did her first 9a, has done Wacka Flocka 8c and the two 8b+'in Rifle; Simply redlined and Zulu. In the 8a ranking game, the 14 year old is #2. Chaehyeon's father, Jungkuk was #10 in an Ice WC in 2015 and in 2016 he did an 8b+ in Red River Gorge. Back home in Korea, he is a youth trainer in his own gym in Korea. Her mother, Chigon is also an 8a climber and has participated in some World Cups.

Excellent start of the Youth World's in Moscow with great boulders on volumes and 02.30 PM GMT+3 (Euro 13.30) the junior finals in bouldering starts. Among the male, three Japaneses were ahead in the semifinal and for the female, there were two from Slovenia and one from Japan in the top. In the Youth A category, with the finals on Sunday, two Japanese girls stood out and among the boys, Sam Avezou, who was #16 in Speed, was the only one with four tops in the semi.