Hannah Meul from Germany made the competition of her life and put extreme pressure on Natalia Grossman, by doing all problems in just six attempts. After Natalia fell one time on the last boulder, the American needed to send it on the next try, to win, which she did. Zhilu Luo from China got the bronze and amazingly this was her first-ever World Cup. The 16-year-old had actually never done a competition outside China but last year she won the Chinese Championship. Complete results (c) Lena Drapella/IFSC

Natalia comments to IFSC: “I’m really grateful and excited for more. I feel like at least during the qualification and semi-final rounds, I had the most fun I’ve had in a really long time. It felt really good to compete without pressure again, because in Salt Lake I had a lot of pressure. Hannah definitely kept me on my toes the whole final round so that was kind of fun dealing with the pressure, but I’m glad I was able to keep it together,” said Grossman following her win. “I’ve been focusing mainly on boulders this year, but I’m very excited to get the opportunity to compete in Lead because I love Lead climbing. We’ll see how it goes!” she added when questioned about the upcoming IFSC Lead World Cup season.

Hannah, who previously has been #7 and #13 in the Boulder WC in 2022, comments to 8a: "It was amazing but I had the feeling that it is my time to shine. I was confident during all rounds. I got this feeling the day before the competition and I can not explain why I got it but it sure was a great feeling. It is a dream come through :)”

Before the final, 8a talked to the German Head coach, Ingo Filzwieser, and congratulated him for the great results also for having four guys in the male final. Asking him about the reason for the great progress of the German climbers he hesitated and gave it a long thought. "I think most important is the mindset. Everyone is stronger mentally and somehow myself and they all think they can make finals. We have a great team and train together at the same time as Hannah for example is doing most of her training with her personal coach in Cologn. You know, everyone is individual and different approaches are necessary at the same time we often meet and train together. I am not surprised that Hannah made it to the final and she can send all problems in the final."

It should be mentioned that the route setting was perfectly creating a big drama. On the second move on the first boulder, we did see six different solutions with Hannah's figure-four as the most spectacular. Everyone says that it has been a great organized competition. The live commentators did together with the DJ, the athletes, the route setters and some 1 700 spectators an event to remember with a smile similar to Natalia's and Hannah's.

Japan has dominated the male bouldering scene for many years and during the female semifinal in Brixen, where Japan got their best female result ever with four girls Top-8, I ask Yoshiyuki Ogata to explain their success. In short, he says they train hard and often together in different gyms around Tokyo. Sometimes new boulders have been set but in the end, they start creating new different dynamic boulders. All their training is focused on bouldering and he and everyone want to be the best. Toma Narasaki actually said yesterday, "I want to become a climbing legend in history". Most of the team train 23- 30 hours a week. Ogata also says that it is very deep in their culture to work together as a group.

- Benji (their german coach since 2008) challenges us to speak English and interact with the other climbers. This has also helped to stay in the isolation and to be a part of the community.
- Nice T-shirt, Sean Bailey passes by and comments that Ogata is also using the brand new Mellow T-shirt.

Ogata says, he only climbs outdoors and that he is focused on the World Cup and then the Olympics. After Brixen, he will fly home together with Kokoro Fujii, who has just become a father, to stay four days in Japan before returning for a one-month Europe trip. Asked about who of his team mate is the new star, he points at Rei Kawamata. The 18-year-old was #5 and #3 in Salt Lake City and apparently, he is much stronger than Ogata.

Kawamata is shy but when Ogata tells him that their coach wants him to practice English with 8a he smiles and says he injured one finger in SL. He is not fully recovered and says that he mainly trains on a spray wall by himself besides going for the team training twice a week in Tokyo. His English is not so good but Ogata confirms his injury story saying he is so strong that he only needs two fingers. Several times in the chat Ogata hears his teammates scream "Gambare!". He turns his head around and sees a Japanese is on the wall and he goes wild - GAMBARE!

Clear blue sky, 26 degrees, a fully packed stadium and Italian Camilla Moroni flashing the first problem created the perfect start of the semifinal in Brixen that lasted for another two hours. Smiling Natalia Grossman flashed all four being less than three minutes on the wall. Interesting to see that on the two first boulders she had returned to the isolation in less than a minute at the same time the other three girls had just begun climbing. Miho Nonaka also topped out all problems needing just five attempts. In the end, a score of 34 in six attempts was needed to make the final. Japan was superior with four girls in the Top-8.

The chief route setter thought it was a bit too easy and felt pity for Jessica Pilz and Futaba Ito who scored 34. Stasa Gejo #10 was probably the most unlucky as she somehow placed one hand at the top but then reversed in order to change her foot and fell. The commentators and the general view was that the setting was perfect and everyone says the venue is great.

- This wall and arena are on my Top-5 list having competed for eight years, says Mickael Mawem who made it to the semi. The Olympian continues, The Brixen city is lovely. It is like being in Chamonix or Arco.

William Bosi has done the FA of Trance (8C) in Badger Cove. "The low right start to Bewilderness (8B+), start sitting with hands under the main face. Adds about 9 moves of 8A into the hard part of Bewilderness".

Yannick Flohé topped out all five boulders in eight attempts and won his group ahead of Kokoro Fujii who needed four attempts more. The other group had harder boulders and there Hamish McArthur won by doing three boulders in six tries. In the end, you needed a score of 23 to make it to the semifinal in the group of harder boulders and a score of 35 in the group with a bit easier boulders. In total, 39 participants, out of 99, did not get one zone. The chief route setter, Marcin Wszolek from Poland, says he was surprised by the difference in the group as their aim was that equally many tops in both groups. "We thought the hardest two boulders in each group would be done by six climbers and then that twelve should do the next two hardest followed by 20 for the easiest one. Sometimes we make mistakes but sometimes it is just coincidences. For example, Tomoa Narasaki did not do his easiest boulders but the three hardest."

The route setter team have been working long days since Sunday and when everyone was leaving the venue 21.30 they started to take down the ten qualification boulders before setting up and readjusting the four female semifinal boulders.

“It was a hard competition – said Flohé to IFSC – each boulder with its difficulty, I reached all the tops quite fast, so I am satisfied. The first boulder was a steep one and not a slab one! And that was something unusual. I reached the first top and then I followed the flow”. On his part, Fujii said: “It was a great competition, I did not feel complete control of my body at top 4, but then it was fine”.

Japan dominated as they always have had the last few years with six guys making it to the semi and Germany was runner-up with four. The Japanese coach talked about, "position to position", "power inpuls" and "team atmosphere" as explanations for their success. (More about this as a follow-up). Slovenia will not have any males in the semifinal on Saturday but all their team of five was Top-45. Complete results

Natalia Grossman was first out starting in fresh conditions at 9 am, flashing all five problems with ease. Later, seven other girls topped out all qualification problems and in the end, you had to score 35 (3 T 5z) in 4 respectively 5 attempts to make it to the final. Later during the day, the lower-ranked boulderers had to fight higher temperatures and one-third of the 79 participants did not make any Top. In the end, all big names made it to the semi and Japan got five girls Top-21. Brooke Raboutou and Oriane Bertone did not participate, the latter due to a finger injury, but both plan to compete in Innsbruck. Complete results

Team Ukraine has five boys and three girls doing the Brixen World Cup. Jenya Kazbekova is missing out, party, due to the injury she got in Salt Lake City but her family is represented by her parents, who are the coaches. They have all stayed abroad for several months and they plan to remain in Europe.

- Previously, we could just stay three months without a visa but now, due to the war, we can stay up to two years, says Fedir Samoilov and he continues. We are refugees and get 300 Euros every month from the German state. When we travel by train we just show our passport valid as a ticket in Germany, Austria and Italy.

- When we show the passport, we often hear comments like, "We support Ukraine", which is nice to hear says Sergei Topishko. We are really thankful for all support and it feels many would like to offer support and that people care about Ukraine.

Fedir continues, everyone is nice to us and most of the time we do not need to pay for training in gyms, competing or even for a place to stay.

- Here in Brixen, we stay in two different places from employees of Vertical-Life, out of which one is actually from Ukraine, says Serik Kazbekov. He was one of the best Combined competition climbers in the world during the 90'ies. In total, he made podiums eight times in Boulder or Lead and in 1993, he got the silver in the Speed World Championship.

Nico Pelorson, who did his first 9a+ this spring, reports on Insta that he has done Jungle Boogie (9a+) in Céüse. The French has previously done also nine 9a's but it is actually in bouldering where he is most impressive having done; Soudain seul (9A), No Kpote Only (9A) and Le pied à coulisse (8C+). It should be mentioned that Nico's personal grade on them are; 8C+, 8C/+ and 8B+. (c) Sam Bie

How was the process taking it Jungle Boogie?
I tried it last year during the summer without succes. My endurance for doing these 30 super hard moves was definitely lacking... This year, I did more routes and less bouldering due to the fact I was living in Marseille.

What are your summer plans?
I need to work all this summer...😔so I will work and train in Fontainebleau all the summer.

So what are your autumn plans after that?
I hope I will finish La Dura Dura this winter but before a lot of hard projects in Fontainebleau for the autumn (: some really really hard stuff 🤗. And keep trying "Le Bombé Bleu" this winter (which is a 40 year old project in Buoux).

Have you done all moves?
Still not the first move. It is a jump from a one-finger pocket to a 2 finger pocket. Pretty sure it is not 9c. I think it could take only one week for someone strong like Megos or Ondra.

Akiyo Noguchi, who got the bronze in Tokyo, reports on Insta that she has done in Little Cottonwood Canyon (UT). Her send, which just took a couple of tries, starts 5.40 in this video. (c) Albert Ok

Akiyo is one of the most successful female competition climbers in history. Between 2008 - 2019, she won the Boulder World Cup four times and got runner-up six times. Five times she has made the podium in Boulder World Championships. In Lead World Cups, she has made the podium ten times, including in her last Lead WC in 2021. Noteworthy is also her competition career started off in 2005, at age 15, when she got her only bronze in a Lead World Championship, in her first-ever senior IFSC event. After getting the bronze in the Tokyo Olympics she retired from the competition scene and got married to Tomoa Narasaki. Here is a great video - The Story of Akiyo Noguchi. Together with Tomoa and some friends, they have started a youtube channel and her is the latest video.