Hamish McArthur was the big sensation in the semi, being the only one topping. The 19-year-old who was #7 in Boulder in Moscow, has previously been #19 as his best in a World Cup but last month, he won both Lead and Boulder in the Youth World Championship also in Moscow. Other than that, all the favourites made it to the final but Sasha Lehmann and William Bosi. Complete results

Among the female, the three top-ranked Chaehyon Seo, Natalia Grossman and Laura Rogora topped. The big names that missed qualifying to the final were; Eliska Adamovska, Alex Totkova, Lucka Rakovec, Viktoriia Meshkova and Mia Krampl. Complete results

It should be mentioned that the route setting was once again great as it has been for every round in both Lead and Boulder. On the other hand, the camera work was again poor where they often switched the camera from a climber fighting hard to the other climber checking the route from the ground.

Loic Zehani has done his fourth 9a+ FA in 2021, Anesthésie in Fetid Beach, which is a 60 move link up of old routes he has done. The 19-year-old, who did his first 9a in 2015, has done 35 routes 9a to 9b.

"Anesthésie is a resistance route on one and two fingers pockets. The feet are rare. It starts with "Corrida", crosses "Genocide", goes up in "H5N1" and crosses on the beautiful pillar of "Syndrome". "Corrida" is a 9a bolted and climbed by my father in 2010. It is very violent on the fingers. In 2019 it took me 6 sessions to get to the anchor and I found it hard! Note that there is still the possibility of "playing" again by starting with an 8a boulder or an 8b boulder in a roof with one-finger pockets."

Chaehyon Seo (17), who has been Top-3 in all of her previous seven World Cups, was the only athlete to top out both the qualification routes in Moscow. Natalia Grossman, Laura Rogora and Lucka Rakovec were runner-ups topping out one route each. Among the male, Tomoa Narasaki won the qualification ahead of Hamish McArthur and Kokoro Fujii, who was the only male topping a route. Complete results

1. Kokoro Fujii JPN 44
2. Tomoa Narasaki JPN 33
3. Manuel Cornu FRA 23 (2)
4. Alexsey Rubtsov RUS 23 (7)
5. Nimrod Marcus ISR 2 (9)
6. Anze Peharc SLO 2 (10)

1. Natalia Grossman USA 44 (7)
2. Camilla Moroni ITA 44 (13)
3. Stasa Gejo SRB 24
4. Elena Krasovskaia RUS 23 (2)
5. Brooke Raboutou USA 23 (3)
6. Andrea Kümin SUI 13
Complete results

karoline sinnhuber has done her 34th 8A+, Zimalis Alexandra in Silvretta and there is a great video on her Insta. In the 8a ranking game, the former competition climber is #3. "Nice one! Morphooooo, but climbs nice with the short girl beta‘. Left crimp needs so much skin :(" (c) Fabian Leu

Gianluca Vighetti, who two weeks ago become the youngest in the world to have done a 9a, has done the Puro Dreaming 8c+/9a in Arco.
"Last weekend, after TCT (9a) went to Arco to try Puro Dreaming. I thought that route would have been kinda my style because it is endurance with good rests in between. After my first try, I understood that it was absolutely possible and easier than TCT. Today the weather was terrible, all the holds were humid. Anyhow, on my first try, I fell higher than all previous attempts but the hold was completely wet, so I tried to dry it with some paper towels and it worked. Two hours later I did it in the rain. I'm really happy because I did this dream line in only two weekends."

What are your plans for this autumn and winter?
Maybe Thunder ribes 9a. It starts with Puro Dreaming's first crux and then there is a boulder at the end. This Winter at Sessi, a crag near my house, there are some bouldery routes that I want to free, from 8b+/8c to maybe 9a I also think that Pure Dreaming plus (9a+) is possible but really hard.

Mathieu Bouyoud has done the FA of Team frisouille 9a+ in La Balme. "It is a very old technical project bolted by Cyrille Bouchard, a local climber. It is 30 meters long and shares the first five bolts with an 8c. I tried it for the first time in 2013 and since I have tried it every September when it is all dry and have cold conditions. So happy to finish the job 🙏"

Previously, the 31-year-old has done 27 9a's and one 9a+. The latter was a FA he did in 2015, which is still unrepeated and that goes also for some of his 12 9a FAs.

Kokoro Fujii was the only one topping the first boulder. In fact, he flashed it at the same time no other did get the zone. Then, after he had done the following two boulders in just three attempts, he had secured the gold. Runner-up was Tomoa Narasaki getting three tops followed by Manuel Cornu with two tops. Fujii has previously won four World Cups between 2016 - 2018. (c) Dimitris Tosidis/IFSC

1. Kokoro Fujii JPN 44
2. Tomoa Narasaki JPN 33
3. Manuel Cornu FRA 23 (2)
4. Alexsey Rubtsov RUS 23 (7)
5. Nimrod Marcus ISR 2 (9)
6. Anze Peharc SLO 2 (10)