It was an outstanding show once more in Bern with Janja Garnbret (SLO) winning the Boulder & Lead World Championships and securing a ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The runner-up was Jessica Pilz (AUT) followed by Ai Mori (JPN), who both were awarded Olympic tickets. Brooke Raboutou got the unlucky fourth position, only 3 points from the podium and the bye to Paris, meaning that if she had made one more move or if Mori had fallen one move earlier, their results had been the opposite. Complete routes

The route setting was excellent in both the Boulder as well as in the Lead round and the point scoring system worked perfectly, creating an amazing show together with an enthusiastic crowd. Overall, this was a great success for competition climbing and the IFSC. (c) Jan Virt/IFSC

1. Janja Garnbret SLO 84.9 + 92.1 = 177.0
2. Jessica Pilz AUT 69 + 88.1 = 157.1
3. Ai Mori JPN 44.5 + 96.1 = 140.6
4. Brooke Raboutou 69.8 + 69 = 137.8
5. Jain Kim KOR 14.1 + 92.1 = 106.2
6. Oriane Bertone FRA 54.7 + 39.1 = 93.8
7. Miho Nonaka JPN 54.4 + 39.1 = 93.5
8. Anastasia Sanders USA 24.6 + 45.1 = 69.7

IFSC quotes
Janja Garnbret (SLO) – women’s Boulder & Lead gold medallist - PARIS 2024 QUALIFIED
“I feel incredible and relieved at the same time. It feels so amazing today. I felt so composed today actually, I was climbing the Lead route flawlessly and I am just incredibly happy right now that I have qualified, even though I have qualified once before, you don’t get tired of this feeling of qualifying for an Olympics. So, my second Olympics – here we go.”

Jessica Pilz (AUT) – women’s Boulder & Lead silver medallist - PARIS 2024 QUALIFIED
“I knew my Boulder round was kind of good but it was all still open until the end. I knew I had to give my all for the Lead route and do my best. I wasn’t sure when I fell if it would be enough, but then my coaches signalled to me that it was, but I couldn’t really believe it and I really wanted to wait until the end until it was safe. It still feels surreal.”

Mori Ai (JPN) – women’s Boulder & Lead bronze medallist - PARIS 2024 QUALIFIED
“I was nervous but when I climb I get excited. I wanted to reach the top, but getting the Olympic ticket makes me very happy.”

Hugo Parmentier, who May 14th sent 100 7A boulders in Fontainebleau, has in only eight climbing days done Super Finale (9a), Massala tea (9a) and Hyper Finale (9a+) in Rawyl.

"I discovered the crag right after the French Championships [where he finished #5] and then did three small trips in between training in Annecy and bouldering in Fionnay with Clem Lechaptois and Marine Thevenet. It was a long adaption to the massive endurance routes of Super and Hyper finale. Especially having trained the power endurance for the comps. So Super Finale took me a lot. Then the boulder problem of Hyper Finale was hard to understand but then when it was well executed and I had trained endurance of Super Finale the whole route felt doable. I think I was recovering from the Fontainebleau project as well during the trip. Massala Tea is a power endurance test piece on small crimps. My complete style. It felt pretty hard even though it took me fewer tries than Super."

What is your next plan?
I hope to return to Fondation’s Edge in Fionnay with Clem and Marine. I’ll go to «Histoire sans fin » 8b+ multipitch (Petit clochet du Portalet, Mont Blanc area) with Symon Welfringer) And I have some business in La Ramirole but I don’t know how long and if I’ll be able to go there and hopefully climb my project. (c) Arkose Climbing

Heither Weidner sent I am the Walrus (8b+) in June 1.5 year after giving birth. Here is the 8a news article with comments by the 43-year-old.

Pietro Vidi, who was #6 in a Boulder Euro Cup in May and #3 in the Italian Championship, has during a five day trip to Fionnay done Foundations Edge (8C), video, The Bitter End (8B+)
Scarred for Life (8B+) and Compass North (8B+).

"It was my first time in Fionnay and I was looking forward to putting my comp shape to good use on this roof! In five days of climbing, I could send all the lines of the big roof. The only one left is Fuck the system (8C+) which I briefly tried and I’m really psyched to come back for. I have been pretty lucky with the weather as it was very cold and dry for the period.

Compass definitely felt the easiest, it just took me one hour plus one try the day after. I needed two sessions for Scarred and two and a half for Foundation that felt slightly harder than the 8B+ but it fits my style way better. The bitter end is a route on his own that I used as a side project and should probably have a sport climbing grade!"

Sebastien Bouin is back in France after a 2.5 weeks trip to Flatanger where he worked on Project Big and Silence. Taking good use of all steep endurance training lately, he managed to make a flash of Baise Moi (8c+) in Saint-Auban, at the same time he did the FA. (c) Clarisse Bompard

”My hardest flash ever! Coming back from Norway, the plan was to spend a month in France between Verdon Gorges and the Alps, climbing some new routes and bolting future projects. The first stop was a relatively new crag "Saint Auban", around the Verdon Gorges which has been bolted by local climbers François Chollet and Adrien Boulon. The first day I was climbing with François Chollet (AKA "Wawa"). I warmed up on "Le vent l'emportera" 8a, which I onsighted. Then I managed to climb "Trésor" 8b flash, to finish the warm-up. François told me he needed 45 minutes to rest. So, I was psyched to check out a project called "Baise moi", thought to be 8c+/9a.

He told me I should wait for Adrien Boulon (the bolter of the route, who is also trying it) to get the beta and give it a flash attempt. But I didn’t think this would be possible. The route is impressive and imposing (45 meters through a big overhang). I was tired from our Norway travel. I said I will just check the moves and hope for a good second go. Then Adrien arrived when I was ready to go. He was psyched for a flash. I thought “Why not?”, even if I was doubtful, I had nothing to lose. Then, crux by crux, I understood that the route could be possible, it was 100% my climbing style. Big moves, bad rests between the cruxes. A pure endurance route. I didn’t make any mistakes and I took the risks at the right moments. It's rare to have this kind of opportunity. I am not used to climb onsight or flash in this level. I have not so many routes left in this level to practice.”

Another round of great route setting, especially of the men's route, created semifinal drama and excitement. Sorato Anraku, Jakob Schubert and Toby Roberts topped the route getting 100 points making them advance to the final. Roberts seemed to fight hard in the lower section where his arm got strangled in the rope but the higher he got, the more relaxed he was, and he was actually twice waving to the spectators with a confident smile to get some more cheering. (c) Lena Drapella/IFSC

"That felt absolutely incredible. Having had some results that haven’t been going the best the competition tonight is so nice to be in front of this huge crowd and give a really good fight on a nice route. From the Lead final to tonight it’s really nice to be able to get a result I know I am capable of. Being in that moment, the crowd was just electric, it was incredible. I was so in the moment. I felt really good up there so I turned around and gave them a little hype up, I was properly in the moment and I’m really happy."

The other five men making it to the final were; Colin Duffy, Tomoa Narasaki, Adam Ondra, Dohyun Lee and Paul Jenft. Complete results

Among the women, Ai Mori once again beat Janja Garnbret getting 92, respectively, 76.1 points. Garnbret won overall and as a matter of fact, she would have been #5 even if she had scored 0 in Lead. Jain Kim was #3 on the Lead route with a 72 points score moving her to #8 overall after having been #19 in Boulder. Oriane Bertone was third overall with another impressive performance in Bern. Fourth on the Lead route was Brooke Raboutou and that was also her overall ranking.
The remaining three women finalists are Miho Nonaka, Jessica Pilz and Anastasia Sanders. Complete results

One twist is that Japan got 2 + 2 into the finals and if all of them make it to the podium, they have filled the max 2 per gender country quota. The same goes for the USA and their females. It should be mentioned again that Shauna Coxsey does an excellent job as a commentator with all her added insight and details.

The Boulder and Lead semifinals started with the boulder stages and once again we saw good route setting in Bern. This meant good score separation for the new system where you get 5 points for the Low zone, 10 points for the High Zone and 25 points for the Top. For each try, 0.1 points were deducted. The women's Top-3 were identical to the podium in Boulder on the weekend.

Later tonight (at 20:30 CEST), the men and the women will do a Lead route where you get 100 points topping out and then 4 points are deducted for the last 10 holds, 3 points for the next 10 holds, 2 points for the next 10 holds and 1 point for the next 10 holds. The routes have approximately 50 holds in Bern, so no points are awarded for the first ca. 10 holds. The Top-8 advance to the Boulder and Lead final and not even Garnbret has secured a place in the final if she falls low. In Morioka last year, 112 and 100 points were needed in the Men and Women respectively to advance, after a similarly difficult Men's semi Boulder stage, and an easier Women's semi Boulder stage than in Bern.

1. Janja Garnbret (SLO) 98.9
2. Oriane Bertone (FRA) 79.4
3. Brooke Raboutou (FRA) 54.1
4. Miho Nonaka (JPN) 53.9
5. Anastasia Sanders (USA) 53.5
6. Ai Mori (JPN) 44.9
7. Jessica Pilz (AUT) 44.4
8. Oceania Mackenzie (AUS) 34.9
Complete results

1. Sorato Anraku (JPN) 84.9
2. Tomoa Narasaki (JPN) 84.1
3. Paul Jenft FRA (84.3)
4. Mejdi Schalck (FRA) 83.9
5. Meichi Narasaki (JPN) 69.8
6. Dohyun Lee (KOR) 69.6
7. Sean Bailey (USA) 69.5
7. Mickael Mawem (FRA) 69.5
Complete results

Adam Ondra was #12 with 64.1 points after being the only one topping the first boulder but just doing three zones on the last two boulders. Alex Megos scored 49.8 points and Jakob Schubert 44.8 points, so they have to hope for a hard route where they climb very high up to advance to the final.

Among the female, Chaehyun Seo with 29.3 points and Jain Kim with 19.1 points are in a similar situation but on the other hand, they are just around 5 respectively 15 points below #8.

Overall, France and Japan continued their great results in the World Championships and Paul Jenft (FRA) comments to IFSC; “It was nice because I was really tired and the boulders were really long. It was hard to find power but I think I climbed pretty well and I’m happy to have reached three tops. The hardest part is done as the boulder is more powerful and I think if I climb well and make good decisions I can really high in the lead route.” (c) Lena Drapella/IFSC

Matteo Reusa, who did his first 9a last month, has made the FA of Super Saiyan (9a) in Falesia del ghëddo. The very overhanging route is 18 m long and was bolted by his father. ”I took a few days to do the route. I decided to propose the grade of 9a, waiting for a confirmation.

The day after he sent Up Forever (8c+) at the same crag, saying it is probably 8c. It was his big brother Michele who did the FA and his father Iuri has also done it. Matteo has won two Euro Boulder Cups in 2023 and in the 8a junior ranking game he is #2.