Janja Garnbret did not find the best flow and climbed the first half of the route relatively slowly. As she passed the highpoint of Chaehyun Seo (KOR), Janja started to cruise again and clipped the anchor with just two seconds left on the clock. Ai Mori (JPN), who had been timed out in the semi, and is known for being a slow climber, did know she had to top out based on the crowd's excitement after Janja had climbed. The 19-year-old, who twice beat Janja in the WC last year, started out at a higher pace than normal and seemed to have control all the way to the top which she clipped with 30 seconds remaining of the clock. Complete results

Ai Mori comments to IFSC. (c) Lena Drapella
“Before climbing I told myself to just enjoy it, so it was an exciting time. I knew maybe Janja got a top, so I knew I had too as well. I was nervous before, but now I’m happy.”

Tyler Thompson has completed Planet Garbage (9a) in Rifle (CO). ”Great route with a crazy low percentage dyno into a pumpy boulder and a hard endurance outro. Sent 4th redpoint go and 2nd time sticking the dyno.”

Later the 21-year-old has also sent two 8c+ (9a); Fat Camp and Bad Girls Club. During the last 13 months, Tyler has sent 13 routes 8c+ and harder which can be compared with only one, prior to that.

How can you explain your great progress the last year?
I think my training and current form lined up really well with my goals and the trip I’ve been on. I’ve spent the last 2 months climbing around Colorado and Utah and am finishing up my trip in Rifle, where most of my goals were at. I’ve been training for a long time but these past few months I’ve focused in on projecting various limestone routes, all of which are pretty power endurance oriented. I think spending that amount of time climbing on rock and building a base of similar style routes before ultimately picking projects worked really well for me.

Janja Garnbret flashed all four boulders in the World Championship final with ease. The Slovenian has won all three Boulder World Championships she has participated in and possibly she is more superior than ever, at age 24. In practice, the boulders need to be harder in order to challenge her to the fullest and it would be interesting to see her trying the male boulders. (c) Jan Virt/IFSC

Runner-up was 18-year-old Oriane Bertone, who did three boulders in seven attempts ahead of Brooke Raboutou flashing two boulders. Complete results

”It’s hard to put into words right now what I feel. To be honest I never get used to winning. I will probably never get used to stepping onto the podium and celebrating the first place because it’s just so incredibly hard to keep the level up because the girls are so strong and coming after me, and it’s hard to keep up with them. Every win means the world to me, it’s always like the first one.

The boulders were tricky, so it was easy to fall, but today I was ‘the right Janja’, as I like to call it, where I was in my own world and my own bubble. I didn’t hear or see anything because I was just in the present moment and just enjoying myself on the wall, so I didn’t doubt that I would fall once because I was just climbing and enjoying.

The best moments were probably the slabs. Everyone knows I haven’t been the greatest on slabs this year because of the injury and everything going on, it was pretty tough for me training that, so every time I topped a slab I was incredibly happy.”

-

Ainhize Belar Barrutia, who in May did Begi Puntuan (9a), has done Honky Mix (8c+) in Araotz/Oñate.

”After doing Honky Tonky (8c), I decided to try honky mix, which has much more resistance. It is the same route until the last four clips more or less. In the upper part, it adds a hard crossing to the left in which you have to position yourself very well. Then you have to continue with some easier blocks.”

Mickael Mawem is the 2023 sensational Boulder World Champion. The 33-year-old has been competing actively in the World Cup since 2014 without making the podium and in 2023 he has not made it into the final. In the qualification in Bern, he was in big problem but with a top on his 12th attempt on the last boulder, he made it into the semi as #13. The French athlete has previously shown that he is doing the best results when it counts the most. In 2016 he was #4 in the World Championship, in 2019 he won the European Boulder Championship and in the Tokyo Olympics he was #5.

Mejdi Schalck got the silver and confirms that France is the leading nation in Europe. The 19-year-old chose to only participate in the World Cups in 2023, 1 - 1 - 3, in order to prepare for the World Championship, although he had won overall if he just had been #3 in one of the three events he skipped. Lee Dohyun from Korea, #2 in the World Cup in 2023, got the bronze. Sorato Anraku was in the lead after the two first boulders but was fourth in the end as he did not score even a zone on the last two boulders. Nicolai Uznik was fifth and he was actually the only one topping the last boulder and he did it with ease on his second try. Kokoro Fujii completed the final being #6.

Overall, the route setting in all three rounds has been great and all 18 male boulders have been topped. The last boulder in the final had a four-move paddle sequence set up on non-friction holds where the best thing seemed to be having wet fingers instead of chalked-up fingers. Complete results

Mawem commented to IFSC. (c) Lena Drapella
"It‘s a crazy moment. I’ve waited ten years for this. It was my goal to be the best in the world one time in my life. I’ve had a lot of failures, I’ve come back year after year. We have all these strong young guys now. I can’t believe it. It’s just crazy. My favourite moment was the end. Some people say just take pleasure in it, but I work a lot. Every day of the year. I haven’t taken a holiday for ten years. I say to everyone the pleasure will come when I win, and now I’ve won. Yeah the competition is cool, the setting is cool, but the end is the best. I just want to say thank you to all my family. My brother, my mother, my father.”

Janja Garnbret (SLO) was superior in the women’s boulder qualification doing all five problems in just nine tries. Brooke Raboutou (USA) won the second group getting three tops and five zones. Runner-ups in the two groups were Ayala Kerem (ISR) and Zelia Avezou (FRA). (c) Jan Virt/IFSC

Contrary to the first three days of the World Championships in Bern, we saw several sensational results. Miho Nonaka #24, Stasa Gejo #27, Hannah Meul #35 and Chaehyun Seo #55 did all miss the semi and especially Seo needs a very good result in Lead to make it to the Combined semi.

Gabriel Kern, who last month won the Swedish Lead Championship, has done Inshallah (8c+) in Kalymnos, Insta video.

”Inshallah, in my opinion the absolute king line! Featuring a middle-finger-undercling-mono-lockoff, sketchy heel-hooks, mega cut-loosing, and a brutal ending! The route is around 15 meters of pure hard bouldering with no rests. As of now it has five ascents on 8a.nu but, the more accurate number is probably around 10-15.

If anyone is visiting Kalymnos I would highly recommend going to north cape and trying it! There are some draws on it already that you can use if you just want to feel the holds!

My first few tries on the route was in November 2022 but that was cut short since there came a swarm of hornets making the route unclimbable. I came back in Easter 2023 hungry, made progress, but still got shut down. Fast forward to summer 2023, everything was greasy and humid, but that didn't stop my projecting, I perfected every sequence and after a falling on the last hold a few tries in a row I managed to send it. It was either send it or take down the draws.”