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 Delete, 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.

The Bern World Championships will finish with Boulder & Lead Combined where the medalists will get Olympic tickets, respecting the max two athletes per country quota. Here is the women starting list and here is the 20 men that made it into the semifinal that will begin on Wednesday. The ranking is based on the "World Cup points" that were achieved in both disciplines and you had to do both disciplines to get a ranking.

France and the USA got four women qualifying for the Combined semi and Slovenia as well as Korea three. Among the male, Japan got five into the semifinal and France continues their great season with four men in the Top 10. The biggest sensations were that Albert Gines Lopez and Hannah Meul are out. (c) IFSC - capturing Sorato Anraku (JPN) and Janja Garnbret (SLO) who both won the Combined qualification.

Jana Svecova has done Sviní Mor (8B) in Moravský kras and two 8A+. In the 8a ranking game, the 26-year-old is #2.


"Roughly a month ago, I went to Terranova to try a few moves, but unfortunately, it was wet, so we headed to Staré Skály instead, which is another area in Moravian Karst roughly 5’of drive from Holštejn. Luckily, the conditions there were acceptable, but most of the boulders were wet anyway, except for Sviní Mor (8B). So, Martin and I decided to give it a go. I thought of approaching it as more of a training session since it is not my style at all. It was actually great, to climb the same boulder together again, because we encouraged each other and competed in who can do the moves faster.

On the very first day, I managed to do all the moves except the first one, which required quite a big reach. The next day, I focused on that particular move and succeeded, thanks to using a new starting foothold. I even climbed the entire boulder that same day, skipping only the reachy first move. At that moment, I thought that maybe, with a good rest, I could climb it next time. But putting it all together, turned out to be more challenging. Even with a different foothold, the first move was still on my limit that I can reach, and it took me seven climbing days to finally top the boulder. Certainly, both the mental aspect and the conditions played a role.

In the end, I felt immense joy from completing the boulder because I never thought I would climb such a boulder problem, especially considering that crux holds are slopers. And on top of that, there's a crux where you have to use heel hook that gives me the most trouble because I’m terrible at heel hooking."

Jakob Schubert (AUT), the reigning Lead World Champion, who also won in 2012 and in 2018, did it again after a big fight that pleased the big crowd in Bern. Schubert was about to run out of time and had to rush the last few moves. Runner-up, beaten by just a +, was 16-year-old Sorato Anraku (JPN) followed by Alex Megos (GER), getting the bronze. The final route was very technical with some spectacular moves as well as bouldery, just like in the semi. Unfortunately, the last two climbers Adam Ondra (CZE) and Toby Roberts (GBR) fell very low finishing #8 and #9. Complete results

Jakob Schubert comments to IFSC. (c) Lena Drapella
“This field is so crazy strong, I knew I had to have the climb of my life to win this world championship title again. I feel like the Lead field is stronger than ever. The emotions are crazy right now.

It means so much to challenge one of the craziest talents we have in the sport with Anraku Sorato. He is such an amazing climber and if I can teach him a thing or two it would make me so proud. Maybe I will tell my kids about it, I don’t have any now of course, but I can say I taught him a little bit and now he wins everything. You see also Toby [Roberts], super strong young climbers, coming out on top tonight ahead of them means so much to me.

After being on the circuit for so long you know even better how to live these moments, and I’m living it right now. Winning in this arena is something you never forget.”