Ana Belen Argudo reports on Insta that she has done Cordia Maleficarum 9a in Cuenca. It was bolted by Dani Andrada and then Alex Garriga did the FA in 2020. The just 20-year-old has previously done six 8c's and one 8c+. Since 2016, she has been competing actively on the IFSC youth scene and she got her best ever results in the Youth World's last year by being #7 in the Combined event. (c) Javi Pec

"I started trying the route on March 5 and sent it on April 6. I needed 32 attempts. The process was difficult because of the rain and freezing temperatures. The weather in March was very very complicated in the whole country as you would see in the LaSportiva video by Javi Pec that will drop out soon that has sick images about the month which was total crazy even with snow and Javi was with me almost every day and captured all the process and the uncut send. The process was intense because months ago our Van got crushed by a distracted driver that hit us and we didn’t get the van back yet. so to try the route We drove 2 hours to Cuenca and 2 hours back to Madrid with my boyfriend who can’t climb at the moment due to an injury, with deferents cars that cousins lend us, or by bus, just to give one or to try to the route, and even having to come back to Madrid without being able to try the route due to the rain. Overcoming the uncertainty was also a challenge too.

For 2022 my plans and ambitions are to continue on this same line, to keep developing and professionalizing my career on the rocks. I hope to get my van back and to be able to put all my efforts into the projects with my boyfriend and keep raising the level. For example, now I’m trying 'El Intento' 9a in Cuenca as well, I hope to be able to send it before summer and after this one depending on the resources that we have, we will go for one project or another, but for sure I will go for routes that inspires and challenge me and I will try to leave nice footage that could inspire the next generation. This is just starting."

France dominated the Euro Youth Boulder Cup in Chambery getting three golds. This was the first time the qualification was organized in a flash format and it worked well.

03: Emil Zimmerman GER - Selma Elhadj Mimoune FRA
05: Julian Wimmer AUT - Sabina Van Essen NED
07: Samuel Richard FRA - Louise Puech Yazid FRA
From the complete results we can see that Samuel Richard was the only competitor doing all nine boulders and he just needed eleven tries to do so.

Moritz Welt has done a quick ascent of Escalatamasters 8c+/9a in Perles & Canelles. "5 tries. crazy rock quality and some of the sharpest crimps I know on the upper half, lost lots of blood on the send^^ honestly, idk about the grade, so I'll just give it a personal 8c+/9a."

How come you have mainly focused on "easier" routes this trip? (Ten 8b+ and harder in three weeks)
Well, I broke my foot in January and wasn't climbing for two months so the first two weeks were mostly about getting back in shape. On the other hand, I started projecting some harder stuff about 1 week ago ;)

How did you break your foot?
I was bouldering in Ticino and had a bad fall

During the qualification and the female semifinal, pictures of the boulders were visible in the isolation. Alex Megos, who was one of the climbers officially saying this was wrong, took it one step further.

"I spoke to the IFSC officials yesterday evening and told them that the athletes don't want the pictures to be put up in semis. And they listened. So the guys didn't have any pictures in semis today."

In a very exciting final, Toma Narasaki won ahead of Yoshiyuki Ogata both from Japan. Narasaki was second last out on the last boulder and by topping it he moved him from sixth to first position. Last out was Kokoro Fujii, who won the semi, with a chance of winning by topping it but as he could not even reach the zone, he was sixth.

All boulders were topped at the same time as everyone but Colin Duffy failed one zone. The third boulder was only done by Paul Jenft and Duffy but they needed 12 and 19 attempts respectively, to reach the zone and then they both continued directly to the top. Complete results

From IFSC; “I feel that the energy of the audience generated my power and finally I could reach the top. That was an amazing moment for me!” said Narasaki. “The target for this season is quite obvious for me – to be a third time overall [Boulder] champion. I found today that the style of Boulder routesetting seems to be more dynamic, so maybe I need to make some adjustments for the coming competitions,” he added.

Five from Japan Top-9 with Kokoro Fujii and Tomoa Narasaki the only ones doing all four boulders.

Pictures of the boulders were shown in the isolation during the boulder qualification and semi, based on the new rule: "A photograph or sketch of each Boulder may be shown in the Isolation Zone or in the Transit Zone for the relevant boulder."

This has upset some climbers and Alex Megos and Stasa Gejo have posted a statement, not written by them, on their Instas. We asked Megos for some further comments.

"I don't think they have a clue what the new rule is yet. I just talked to an IFSC official and the idea behind it was to make it fairer for athletes. They wanted to avoid athletes having seen the boulders during setting up have an advantage. Usually, that only is the case for lead comps though (Chamonix for example). So it doesn't really make sense for bouldering. Plus it makes it not fair right now because some people have more time to study the pictures and athletes with coaches can talk about the boulders with experienced people. Athletes without coaches do not have that opportunity."

According to the IFSC rules, "Each boulder should be designed without any downwards jump." From the highlights video (min 2.02 to 2.14), it seems that Janja Garnbret makes downward jumps on both boulder 3 and 4. Prior to the comp this was mentioned by both athletes as well as the judges to the officials without any action.

Janja Garnbret won the Meiringen World Cup ahead of Natalia Grossman and they were both leaps and bounds ahead of the rest of the field. Overall, Janja did all 13 boulders and in the final, she only needed five attempts. Natalia managed ten boulders overall out of which three in the final. Andrea Kümin, #6 in the WCh last year, got the bronze pleasing the home crowd, doing one boulder as also Oriane Bertone #4 did. Noteworthy is that they did only six boulders overall as also #5 Futaba Ito and Stasa Gejo #6 did. Complete results (c) Jan Virt/IFSC

From one point of view, the boulders seemed to be a bit too hard in the last two rounds at the same time, Janja probably could have done just as many even if they had been a bit harder. Prior to Meiringen, Janja had been in Oliana projecting the endurance monster La Dura Dura 9b+.

From the IFSC newsletter, “Today’s win was a privilege. It means a lot to me because it’s not obvious that you will win every competition – each competition is a story in itself. Just because you won everything last year doesn’t mean that you can next year, so every win means a lot to me. That’s why I was so emotional!” said Garnbret.

“I’ve decided to skip the [rest of the] Boulder season this year. The Olympics last year were a pretty hard take on physical and mental preparation, so I feel that I need a little time off from comps and this year is the perfect year to do that. I already have [the Olympic Games in] Paris in mind!” she added.