From the World Cup rankings we can see the total Japanese male domination, six in Top-13 and 8 in Top-17. Among the female, two in the Top-3. In regards the world ranking, based on the last 12 months, 9 male Japaneses among Top-15. It must be very few sports that have seen such an extreme domination from one country. Runner-up, is the very small country Slovenia with just 2 million inhabitants, with two in Top-7 among both male and female. Based on that the next two World Cups are in China followed by one in Tokyo, most likely, we will see an even stronger Japanese domination in the ranking lists coming up. Last year, Japan participated with 41 athletes in Tokyo but this year they will be allowed to compete with 47.

Five of the female semifinalist in Meiringen made it to the final also in Moscow and the one missing, Sandra Lettner, did not participate. Among the male, four are the same as in the last event. Japan and Slovenia got three in total to the final and the Japanese domination continues with four male in Top-10 and three female in Top-8. Complete results All boulders were topped out and in fact, based on the top out percentage, it seems they were all of similar difficulty. This is very seldom the case and the route setting also in terms of style and variation were extraordinary great.

Excellent route setting also in the final in Moscow where it was thrilling to the very last try. Janja Garbret had to flash and so she did, winning on count back over Miho Nonaka. Also last starter in the final, Jongwon Chon had the chance to secure the victory but could not reach the top, and ended #4. As you can see below, Slovenia and Japan shared the podiums equally. 1. Janja Garnbret SLO 44:7/5 - Tomoa Narasaki JPN 44 2. Miho Nonaka JPN 44:7/5 - Jernej Kruder SLO 34:5 3. Akiyo Noguchi JPN 34 Gregor Vezonik SLO 34:6 Complete results Noteworthy is also that Vezonik was #51 in Meiringen last week. Eddie Fowke from The Circuit Climbing and the IFSC official photographer, who has captured almost all World Cups the last five years, was very impressed of the whole competition and the final show. "Very good comp. Too many dyno's in finals though. Super well run, the Russian's put on a great show and put a huge effort into everything going right." In Speed, Yoshiyuki Ogata was best of the top ranked boulderers being #43 with 7.90. Among the female, Miho Nonaka was #44 with 10.51.

The Bouldering World Cup is booming and there are 118 male in the starting list for the qualification starting 07.30, Euro time, Saturday morning. The female begin 15.00 with 100 female participating. On Sunday there will be live-streaming from the semi starting 08.00. The finals start 17.00 with the female and around 18.30 with the male. Live results

Great qualification round where all the ten boulders were topped in Moscow. Japan continue their strong domination in the Bouldering World Cup with eight guys qualifying to the Top-20 semifinal. Winners of the two groups were Gabri Moroni and Jongwon Chon. Jakob Schubert and Jan Hojer were the big surprises not making the semi final. Other sensational results were Gabri Moroni moving from #27 in Meiringen to #1 in Moscow, Alex Khazanov from #57 to #3 and Martin Stranik from #73 to 9. Complete results

There were no big sensations in the female qualification in Moscow and the Top-4 ranked were finalists in Meiringen. In general, very good route setting and although five girls topped all five problems, three boulders were good enough to make it to the semi tomorrow. Complete results

Innsbruck 2018 has published a very interesting interview with Alexey Rubtsov who won the World Champion in 2009 after just having trained bouldering for three years. His big focus is the Olympics and last year he tried Lead and was #17 without any training. Here are some of the lonely wolf's straight forward messages. "The brain is the most important part in climbing. Maybe not in speed (laughs), but in bouldering for sure. In Europe, every coach thinks that he's the smartest one and his system is the best. They are authoritarian. But they should understand that they know nothing and start their education from zero. I can't tell you what I do, because that is my secret. Laughs. You need to widen your repertoire to improve, not focusing on small things, but on the big picture... It is better for me to be alone. You could maybe remove the bonus, even. You can do the boulder, or you can't. Bouldering is good. One bonus, two bonuses, ten bonuses, ... what is that? It's not Bouldering."