The biggest sensation in the qualification of the Lead World Cup in Villars was that Romain Desgranges, #3 last year overall, ended #31. Other then that, all big names made it through to the Top-26 semifinal with Alex Megos (c) Eddie Fowke and Jakob Schubert topping both routes. Japan had six guys Top-18 with Tomoa Narasaki as #11. Among the female, Janja Garnbret was the only one to top both routes and she did it in great style. In the Top-10, there were four from Japan and three from Slovenia. Interesting from the Combined perspective was that Shauna Coxsey was #20 and Petra Klingler #26 meaning they qualified to the semi tomorrow. Complete results

Miho Nonaka sat a new record among the non Speed specialist with 8.43 and #10 which makes her superior compared to the Boulder and Lead specialists. The winners in a strange final with many falls, false starts and slips were Aleksandra Shikov and Anouck Jaubert. The most crazy race was the small final for the male where Jan Kriz won after several slips on 7.76 as his opponent Bassa Mawem fell after also several slips. Complete results

Based on 1 500+ unique votes, Male dream climbing partner, here is the result with the 2016 votes in brackets. 19 % Chris Sharma (22) 18 % Adam Ondra (12) 17 % David Graham (19) 12 % Fred Nicole (13) 08 % Alex Honnold (8) 07 % Jimmy Webb (7) 06 % Alex Megos (6) 04 % Daniel Woods 02 % Jan Hojer, Tomoa Narasaki, Jakob Schubert and Stefano Ghisolfi

Based on 1 600+ unique votes, female dream climbing partner? 24 % Margo Hayes 14 % Lynn Hill 10 % Barbara Zangerl 09 % Shauna Coxsey 09 % Alex Puccio 08 % Janja Garnbret 07 % Anna Stöhr 05 % Jain Kim & Jessica Pilz 04 % Akiyo Noguchi & Isabelle Faus 02 % Josune Bereziartu

Manuel Cornu set a new personal best with 6.39 in the Speed qualification in Villars. Runner ups among the best Boulder and Lead specialists were Kokoro Fujii 6.50, Tomoa Narasaki 6.56, Jan Hojer 6.67 and Kai Harada 6.75. Most of the non Speed specialist still fights in between 7.2 - 11 seconds. Complete results

Miho Nonaka, who skipped the three Boulder WCs in April due to a shoulder injury, has set a new Speed standard by the non Specialist with 8.57 which put her at #14 in the qualification. The best other high class Boulder and Lead athletes were far behind; Futabo Ito 9.26, Sol Sa 9.37 and Janja Garnbret with 9.53. Complete results Tomorrow live-streaming from the final at 21.00.

Giuliano Cameroni has made the second repeat of Felipe Camargo's Fortaleza in Ubatuba. As it just took an hour he gave it a personal 8B+ grade. In the 8a ranking game, Giuliano is #2. (c) Matty Hong

Daniel Fuertes has done Jose Luis Palao's 8c+/9a, The Punisher in Rodellar in some eight sessions. (c) Marcos Vidal "It shares the beginning with the route “Minas Tirith “. The route has the harder crux of this one and after that, going on for the arch, where the crux is located! After that, a fraught ending to the top. Good boulder route, with technical movements that complete “Minas Tirith”.

Yoshiyuki Ogata, who won the last Boulder WC and holds the Japanese Speed record at 6.37, is not scheduled to compete in the Lead and Speed WC in 2019 as he failed to quality to team Japan. Kind of strange that Japan do not focus on the Combined WC and instead just pick the best from a qualification event of each discipline. This means that Ogata's only possibility to make it to the Olympics should be to be the best from Japan as well as within the Top-7 in the Combined World Championship in Tokyo 2020. Kind of unfair that the #4 in Combined in 2018 and a potential winner in Tokyo 2020 will have very hard time to qualify to the Olympics. (c) Eddie Fowke ”I’m so happy I can compete in World Championship because I will still have a chance!”

The Lead World Cup starts in Villars with the qualification on Friday. The ones going for the Combined will do their qualification on Thursday. Adam Ondra will not participate. It will be especially interesting to follow Shauna Coxey who has skipped all but two Boulder WCs and instead just focused on training Lead and Speed. Japan has 14 athletes competing due to their good overall result last year. IFSC reports 461 athletes are in their starting List. Tim Hatch has helped out with the real figures in the forum. ”I make the number 248 unique competitors, (135M, 113F) with 111M/94F starting in Lead and 94M/81F starting in Speed.” Saturday 06th May - Live streaming 10.00-12.30 Men & Women Lead Semi-finals [LIVE] 20.20-21.00 Men Lead Final [LIVE] 21.20-22.00 Women Lead Final [LIVE]