More valuable resting time for the early starters at Boulder WCs

Since the Boulder World Championship in 2007, when we got the first upside-down final result in comparison with the semifinal starting order, I have been addressing the problem. In fact, it has been like this for all the following four World Championships and the 2016 circuit started out in the same way. One possible explanation for this, beside increased pressure for the one who is starting last and worse friction, could be the fact that the early starters often get more valuable resting time. Let us say that nobody does the first boulder but all the competitors do the second one. In this case, the first guy out will have some 24 minutes of rest after that first hard boulder before trying the second one. At the same time, the last one out will probably have just some 12 minutes of resting time. It is clearly a big disadvantage for the winner of the semifinal. If it is the other way around, easy first problem and then a super hard second Boulder, the first guy out will probably have just about 12 minutes rest before starting the second problem. At the same time, the last guy out will have some 24 minutes of rest. Clearly, there is an advantage but as the both guys did not spend that much energy working the first problem for the full 4+ minutes, the resting time is not that important. It would be hard work, but with the final videos available, possibly there could be made a study showing that there is a correlation between who gets the most valuable resting time and who wins.