Who will win in Meiringen?

Japan has dominated the boulder competition scene for several years, especially on the men's front. Last year Yoshiyuki Ogata won ahead of Kokoro Fujii. Among the women, Japan had four girls in the Top 10 overall WC ranking. In 2019, Japan had three males in the Top 5 and eight in the Top 18. Typically, all participating Japanese male competitors make the semifinal, and it is quite normal for 50% of the male finalists to be Japanese. As Adam Ondra is not participating and it seems some of the other top male competitors have focused more on outdoor bouldering, my guess is that Japan will dominate more than ever, especially among the males, both in Meiringen and overall. Here is a prediction for Meiringen:

1. Tomoa Narasaki JPN - Janja Garnbret SLO
2. Kokoro Fujii JPN - Natalia Grossman USA
3. Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN - Miho Nonaka JPN
4. Jakob Schubert AUT - Brooke Raboutou USA
5. Sean Bailey USA - Oriane Bertone FRA
6. Keita Dohi JPN - Seo Chaehyun KOR
7. Alex Megos GER - Futaba Ito JPN
8. Nathaniel Coleman USA - Fanny Gibert FRA

Interesting is that Janja two days ago reported on Insta. "Verified Stupid of me to think La Dura Dura is just hard when obviously it’s hard hard 🤔" Meaning she has focused on trying a 9b+ endurance monster just the weeks before the Bouldering WC starts. On the other hand, on Sunday she won the first cup of the Slovenia Championship together with Jernej Kruder.

He has prepared mainly outdoors as usual and is always a dark horse since he won the Euro Championship in 2020. ”I'm just doing my thing...going on a few obligational and selectional trainings, the rest spending outside trying some hard stuff. I wish I can still show the kids that experience count.”