Here is the ranking after five, out of seven events. As Natalia Grossman has been 2 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1, she has already secured the gold even if she skips the last two competitions. On the male side, it would be a big surprise if not one of the first three ranked Japanese guys will take the overall title.

1. Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 3 845 - Natalia Grossman USA 4 805
2. Tomoa Narasaki JPN 2950 - Miho Nonaka JPN 2588
3. Kokoro Fujii JPN 2 825 - Brooke Raboutou USA 2 485
4. Mejdi Schalck FRA 2 283 - Oriane Bertone FRA 2 285
5. Maximillian Milne GBR 2 215 - Stasa Gejo SRB 2 195
6. Yannick Flohé GER 1 980 - Futaba Ito JPN 2 190

National Ranking
1. Japan 17 298
2. USA 12 025
3. France 8 957
4. Austria 7 126
5. Germany 6 344
6. Slovenia 5 317

After having won both the qualification as well as the semifinal, the pressure was on Yannick Flohé shoulders starting last in the final. He had heard that all his five competitors did the first boulder, out of which one flash by Maximillian Milne. Yannick sends it on his third try after having failed to match the Top on his second attempt. Later, Maximillian is the only one who tops the second boulder at the same time, Yannick can not match the top. As also the third boulder looked a bit too hard and Yannick fell on the second last hold, after a tiring attempt, the pressure increased on the 22-year-old German.

On his next try, he finds a solution on the crux and tops relatively easy and the crowd goes wild as well as the commentators and the DJ. Nobody tops the last and Yannick has secured the gold before trying the last boulder. He makes some good attempts and is again the one getting the closest to send showing who has been the best throughout all three rounds in Brixen. Runner-up was Maxmilian Milne GBR and Tomoa Narasaki got the bronze. Complete results

How did you deal with the pressure starting last as well as first falling so close to topping out the first three boulders?
I think I was lucky as there wasn’t too much pressure as there weren’t that many tops. On #3, I knew that nobody topped before. On a flash round (on easier boulders), it’s much harder to perform well when you come out last. I think I was capable of making finals last year but my head didn’t work. I got much stronger this year but I would never emagine winning a World Cup. Making another final after Salt Lake City was my main goal. (c) NEWSPOWER.IT

Interestingly, Yannick is an active outdoor climber and last year he did two 9a's. In 2022, he started by doing Off the Wagon Sit (8C+) but later he broke his foot. Even so, he did trips to Fontainebleau and Ticino, sending three 8B+ and two 8C in March, which have been covered in 8a articles. The injury made him decide to skip the first two world Cups as he could not run around jumping on volumes.

It should be mentioned that Yannick got the bronze in the World Championship in 2019 and that he in 2021 was the Combined World Champion. However, besides these comps he has only twice been in the Top-16 out of 16 Boulder World Cups before he was #5 and #7 in Salt Lake City in 2022, although having previously several times won or placed Top-3 in the qualifications.

Hard semifinal round in Brixen and it was not until Yannick Flohé, starting last as he won the qualification, that all boulders got topped. The umbrellas of all spectators and athletes were lifted to the clear blue sky and everyone was screaming. The new german coach, Sagi Damti from Israel (in the picture), who the head coach Ingo says is the main reason why the German has strengthened their mental game, was jumping up and down almost dancing. (Interesting interview is coming up).

Second and third were Meichi (188 cm) and Tomoa Narasaki (170 cm). In the end, you had to score 23 in five attempts to make it to the final. The much taller little brother said, "This was my round. It was nice to be a little taller with a good reach." and he shows his big span and smiles. The other three who made it to the semifinal were Maximillian Milne, Yoshiyuki Ogata and Dohyun Lee.

Possibly the first boulder was a little bit reachy and the shortest athlete making it was Jakob Schubert 176 cm. As all previous rounds have had perfect route setting, it should also be mentioned that the zone placement on boulder 3 should have been placed one move lower as only three climbers made the zone. Complete results

Cameron Hörst has done Manphibian (9a) in Mt. Charleston and there is a video. "Currently, I am on a summer-long climbing road trip in the western United States with my brother Jon. We have been on the road for three weeks now. We started our trip climbing in the Utah Hills (for about two weeks) and now are climbing at Mt. Charleston which is outside of Las Vegas.

Manphibian was established by Andy Raether a few years back. The route breaks down into two parts. The first part being a 35 feet of bouldery 8c+ to an average rest. The second half is 8b/+. You fight your way up a steep arete feature and then have to compose yourself enough to dance your way through a desperate 5.13 slab feature to the chains! Actually enjoyed the intensity of the slabby/vertical redpoint crux at the top! Was sketched out hahaha. 8c+/9a maybe, but I did think this was fairly harder than Arrested Development (8c+), the stout 8c+ at the crag."

The day after, Cameron's little brother Jonathan did AD and comments. "Stoked to tick this line off relatively quickly before it got too hot for the summer. Got to the hole on day 2 and subsequently fell at the crimp move for 3 days ugh. As much as I would like this to be my first 9a it really is not. Amazing test of power nonetheless." More grade thoughts on the 19-year-old's Insta (c) Joe Kinder. Jon is sending AD and Cameron is belaying.

The Hörst brother started to make 8a headlines in 2013 as both were setting new standards in climbing. Jon did his first 8b at age 10 and Cameron did 8b+ being 11-years-old. Their father Eric is one of the most well-known climbing coaches out there and he has published numerous training books. Here is his first, out of many, 8a articles from 2013 on how to balance early progress for kids.

The USA has during the last years evolved to be one of the strongest nations in the international competition scene and they had four athletes in the Tokyo Olympics. The great progress goes in hand with Josh Larsson being their new head coach sending big teams to each event. The Japanese coach Benjamin since 2008 says he has noticed that team USA is much more of a team compared to some ten years ago. Asking Josh if he can explain the great USA progress he explains.

- You know, when I started competing in 2011, we just went to the comps by ourselves and not like in a team. I remember that I saw Daniel Woods in my first competition and realized he was on my team but we did not know each other. Since I have become the coach, I have been part of making Salt Lake City the centre for USA competition climbing. Now, most of the athletes live there and if not they come there regularly. It is great to be a big team and going on long road trips in Europe like this one is fun and it is like a long team-building activity. Everyone supports each other and I am sure this is part of why we have gotten more athletes in the semifinals and podiums.

Besides having done some 20 World Cups between 2001 and 2017, the best result is #12, Josh has since 2008 worked as a route setter, In 2014, he first became an assistant for the youth national team. A big part of his USA Team manager and coach is still setting routes in the USA national climbing centre in Salt Lake City.

Together with his partner Charlotte Durif, one of the best female climbers in the history, they run A World Less Traveled, basically pioneering and bolting new climbing destinations in the world. In total, they have published 17 feature videos from new remote climbing places like in; Nepal, Tasmania, Peru and Serbia.

Hannah Meul from Germany made the competition of her life and put extreme pressure on Natalia Grossman, by doing all problems in just six attempts. After Natalia fell one time on the last boulder, the American needed to send it on the next try, to win, which she did. Zhilu Luo from China got the bronze and amazingly this was her first-ever World Cup. The 16-year-old had actually never done a competition outside China but last year she won the Chinese Championship. Complete results (c) Lena Drapella/IFSC

Natalia comments to IFSC: “I’m really grateful and excited for more. I feel like at least during the qualification and semi-final rounds, I had the most fun I’ve had in a really long time. It felt really good to compete without pressure again, because in Salt Lake I had a lot of pressure. Hannah definitely kept me on my toes the whole final round so that was kind of fun dealing with the pressure, but I’m glad I was able to keep it together,” said Grossman following her win. “I’ve been focusing mainly on boulders this year, but I’m very excited to get the opportunity to compete in Lead because I love Lead climbing. We’ll see how it goes!” she added when questioned about the upcoming IFSC Lead World Cup season.

Hannah, who previously has been #7 and #13 in the Boulder WC in 2022, comments to 8a: "It was amazing but I had the feeling that it is my time to shine. I was confident during all rounds. I got this feeling the day before the competition and I can not explain why I got it but it sure was a great feeling. It is a dream come through :)”

Before the final, 8a talked to the German Head coach, Ingo Filzwieser, and congratulated him for the great results also for having four guys in the male final. Asking him about the reason for the great progress of the German climbers he hesitated and gave it a long thought. "I think most important is the mindset. Everyone is stronger mentally and somehow myself and they all think they can make finals. We have a great team and train together at the same time as Hannah for example is doing most of her training with her personal coach in Cologn. You know, everyone is individual and different approaches are necessary at the same time we often meet and train together. I am not surprised that Hannah made it to the final and she can send all problems in the final."

It should be mentioned that the route setting was perfectly creating a big drama. On the second move on the first boulder, we did see six different solutions with Hannah's figure-four as the most spectacular. Everyone says that it has been a great organized competition. The live commentators did together with the DJ, the athletes, the route setters and some 1 700 spectators an event to remember with a smile similar to Natalia's and Hannah's.

Japan has dominated the male bouldering scene for many years and during the female semifinal in Brixen, where Japan got their best female result ever with four girls Top-8, I ask Yoshiyuki Ogata to explain their success. In short, he says they train hard and often together in different gyms around Tokyo. Sometimes new boulders have been set but in the end, they start creating new different dynamic boulders. All their training is focused on bouldering and he and everyone want to be the best. Toma Narasaki actually said yesterday, "I want to become a climbing legend in history". Most of the team train 23- 30 hours a week. Ogata also says that it is very deep in their culture to work together as a group.

- Benji (their german coach since 2008) challenges us to speak English and interact with the other climbers. This has also helped to stay in the isolation and to be a part of the community.
- Nice T-shirt, Sean Bailey passes by and comments that Ogata is also using the brand new Mellow T-shirt.

Ogata says, he only climbs outdoors and that he is focused on the World Cup and then the Olympics. After Brixen, he will fly home together with Kokoro Fujii, who has just become a father, to stay four days in Japan before returning for a one-month Europe trip. Asked about who of his team mate is the new star, he points at Rei Kawamata. The 18-year-old was #5 and #3 in Salt Lake City and apparently, he is much stronger than Ogata.

Kawamata is shy but when Ogata tells him that their coach wants him to practice English with 8a he smiles and says he injured one finger in SL. He is not fully recovered and says that he mainly trains on a spray wall by himself besides going for the team training twice a week in Tokyo. His English is not so good but Ogata confirms his injury story saying he is so strong that he only needs two fingers. Several times in the chat Ogata hears his teammates scream "Gambare!". He turns his head around and sees a Japanese is on the wall and he goes wild - GAMBARE!

Clear blue sky, 26 degrees, a fully packed stadium and Italian Camilla Moroni flashing the first problem created the perfect start of the semifinal in Brixen that lasted for another two hours. Smiling Natalia Grossman flashed all four being less than three minutes on the wall. Interesting to see that on the two first boulders she had returned to the isolation in less than a minute at the same time the other three girls had just begun climbing. Miho Nonaka also topped out all problems needing just five attempts. In the end, a score of 34 in six attempts was needed to make the final. Japan was superior with four girls in the Top-8.

The chief route setter thought it was a bit too easy and felt pity for Jessica Pilz and Futaba Ito who scored 34. Stasa Gejo #10 was probably the most unlucky as she somehow placed one hand at the top but then reversed in order to change her foot and fell. The commentators and the general view was that the setting was perfect and everyone says the venue is great.

- This wall and arena are on my Top-5 list having competed for eight years, says Mickael Mawem who made it to the semi. The Olympian continues, The Brixen city is lovely. It is like being in Chamonix or Arco.

William Bosi has done the FA of Trance (8C) in Badger Cove. "The low right start to Bewilderness (8B+), start sitting with hands under the main face. Adds about 9 moves of 8A into the hard part of Bewilderness".