The male final started with great climbing by Meichi Narasaki falling in a dynamic move to the top. As the next two guys, Alex Megos and Yufei Pan quite easily topped it was obvious that the route was way to easy. Luckily, for the route setters, all the following did mistakes including Tomoa Narasaki who seemed to flashing an 8a, until he slipped as he stood on the rope. In the end, Sascha Lehmann won and he was also the one who executed the final moves in the best style. Complete results

Europe and USA dominate girls U-19
For the first time at the Youth World Championships in Arco, athletes from Europe and the United States dominated a competition, doing so in the U-19 girls' Bouโ€ฆ
Korea takes gold and silver in boys U-19
Korea claimed gold and silver in the U-19 Youth World Championships Boulder event in Arco, with Beomjin Park taking gold and Chanjin Jung earning silver. The laโ€ฆ
After poor route setting for the male, it did get even worse for the female as the first seven did fell on the same move. Then Janja Garnbret showed up and just locked off statically and it was like she was using another set of holds. Confirming the possibly worst route setting ever, even with so much over capacity, she fell on the next move some ten moves from the top. In practice this meant we got the same result as in the semi meaning 15 year old Chaehyon Seo was runner up ahead of 16 year old Ai Mori. Both did not look nervous at all, just another training route in the gym, was their approach. Complete results

Dramatic semi - Schubert, Ghisolfi and Pilz are out
During the male final it looked like the wall was heated up as the best qualifiers started to fight even low down and in the end Stefano Ghisolfi and Jakob Schubert were not even close to make it to the final. Winner of the semi was Tomoa Narasaki and in total four from Japan made it through. Then Janja Garnbret dropped her chalk bag before clipping the first bolt and had to fight hard even in the middle section. Later she was trying to brush the sweat from her hands on her shorts. Strangely the commentators did not notice her extreme situation. Once moving up on the upper more crimpy section, she put in her normal cruise control again becoming the only one topping out. Runner up, also in cruise control, was 15 year old Chaehyon Seo from Korea and this was the very moment a new star was born. Previously we had een Jessica Pilz falling at the second crux but as a matter of a fact she did seem to have hard times also on some easier moves.

Double tops by Megos, Schubert and Garnbret
The biggest sensation in the qualification of the Lead World Cup in Villars was that Romain Desgranges, #3 last year overall, ended #31. Other then that, all big names made it through to the Top-26 semifinal with Alex Megos (c) Eddie Fowke and Jakob Schubert topping both routes. Japan had six guys Top-18 with Tomoa Narasaki as #11. Among the female, Janja Garnbret was the only one to top both routes and she did it in great style. In the Top-10, there were four from Japan and three from Slovenia. Interesting from the Combined perspective was that Shauna Coxsey was #20 and Petra Klingler #26 meaning they qualified to the semi tomorrow. Complete results

Based on 1 500+ unique votes, Male dream climbing partner, here is the result with the 2016 votes in brackets. 19 % Chris Sharma (22) 18 % Adam Ondra (12) 17 % David Graham (19) 12 % Fred Nicole (13) 08 % Alex Honnold (8) 07 % Jimmy Webb (7) 06 % Alex Megos (6) 04 % Daniel Woods 02 % Jan Hojer, Tomoa Narasaki, Jakob Schubert and Stefano Ghisolfi

Based on 1 600+ unique votes, female dream climbing partner? 24 % Margo Hayes 14 % Lynn Hill 10 % Barbara Zangerl 09 % Shauna Coxsey 09 % Alex Puccio 08 % Janja Garnbret 07 % Anna Stรถhr 05 % Jain Kim & Jessica Pilz 04 % Akiyo Noguchi & Isabelle Faus 02 % Josune Bereziartu