1. Janja Garnbret 4t5 4b4 SLO - Alexey Rubtsov 3t8 4b13 RUS 2. Akiyo Noguchi 4t9 4b9 JPN - Tomoa Narasaki 3t9 4b10 JPN 3. Miho Nonaka 3t4 4b5 JPN - Keita Watabe 2t5 3b6 JPN Teljes eredménylista A Japanese coach try to explain why they excel.

The only surprise among the females in the Boulder World Cup in Hachioji, Japan, was that Margo Hayes did not make it to the semifinal Top-20 as well 15 Japanese failed. In total just four Japanese females made it through. Female results Among the males, eight Japanese male were within the Top-15 and also five from France made it to the semi. The big guys that did not make it to the semi were: Kruder, Gelmanov, McColl, Hojer and Stranik. Sunday Livestreaming GMT+9 09:00-11:15 Men and Women Semi-Finals 14:30-15:50 Women Finals 15:50-17:10 Men Finals The Live streaming from the semi starts 02.00 Euro Time and the final 07.30. The qualifiers were streamed live but only with Japanese commentators. Here is the link to the male live streaming.

ZlagBoard Contest by La Sportiva // Melloblocco 2016 from Vertical Life on Vimeo.

During the La Sportiva media days, we had a chance to talk to Adam Ondra and Pietro dal Pra in regards shoe technology and know-how. First of all, Pietro wanted to say that it is Luca Gabrielli from R & D who is the brain behind shoe construction "no climber could understand this because it is just too complicated." As La Sportiva has so many shoes on the market that try to match the demand of different types of feet, skill, steepness, and holds, they have put together a vector diagram as well as table explaining how to choose. On the other hand, every climber is unique with a personal style and flexibility so La Sportiva can just give general advice. Adam Ondra fills in saying that he has gone up half a size and just such a small change has had an impact on his climbing as the this allows him to use his toes more actively instead of just putting pressure on them. It relates to the angle his toes are shaped into and this is determined by the size. It should be mentioned that Adam now is using 38.5 which is like five sizes below his normal size. Their message is somewhat that every top climber should spend a few hours reading and understanding all this shoe technology know-how, through the new La Sportiva catalog. Sure you will have to invest in some more shoes but then you will climb harder if you know which shoe to use specifically on each foot for each route. The next step is to take the knife and start adjusting the heal as Adam did for his Vasil vasil 9b+. Ondra also used examples from the Boulder World Cup to explain different extremes. ""Sometimes there are slabs where you just stand on volumes, and you could actually climb them in normal sneakers. These boulders are all about putting as much rubber on as possible and what is most important is how flexible you are in the foot." He also said that for him it is hard to understand why some of the top climbers on this type of boulder would use the same very tight shoes as you would for standing on micros on an overhang. "Tomoa is, on the other hand, using over-sized consumed shoes which tell us that he has super strong toes also." Noteworthy is also that Adam, who is now 69 kg, almost always goes for No Edge when he goes for an onsight, as you do not have time to be ultra precise. When going for his hardest redpoints, lately he has been using a prototype of the new Miura XX which has just been released with his signature included. He also told us that he will go for the Olympic, "even if the format is stupid."

Rafa Fanega has done MD MDA in Villanueva del Rosario, which was his third 8c+ in the last 12 months. Interestingly, he started climbing in 1991 and now at 42, the 163 cm Spaniard is in the best shape of his life. It is time to step it up to 9a! In total, Rafa has recorded 1 674 routes, out of which one third are FAs. Most of his FAs are from Fin del Mundo outside of Madrid, which has been one of the most popular crags in Spain recently, although it is closed between January 15th and June 15th.

Piotr Schab has onsighted his third 8c, American Hastle in Oliana, the same day he drove 700 km from a snowy Céûse . "Felt and climbed rather badly, but somehow made it to the top. Seems not so tough for the grade." There should at most be a handful of climbers who have onsighted more than three 8c's, so the 21 year old Pole belongs to an exclusive club.