The last WC in Villars did show that IFSC need to act in order to better find the correct difficulty. Obviously, the route setters have hard times to keep up the increasing new standards for the male and that more female are below 155 cm tall. The easy solution, as have been mentioned before, is that best that did not qualify to the semi respectively to the final are asked to join the route setting team. If the ranked #10 in the semi would have just tried the final route, most probably, they would ave found out the the male route was too easy and that the female crux was way too hard.

The male final started with great climbing by Meichi Narasaki falling in a dynamic move to the top. As the next two guys, Alex Megos and Yufei Pan quite easily topped it was obvious that the route was way to easy. Luckily, for the route setters, all the following did mistakes including Tomoa Narasaki who seemed to flashing an 8a, until he slipped as he stood on the rope. In the end, Sascha Lehmann won and he was also the one who executed the final moves in the best style. Complete results

Natsuki Tanii (15) was ranked #8 in Villars but she should have been #5. IFSC need to sit down and rewrite the + rule. Natsuki reached hold 35 but as she is very short and the hold 34 had a bigger incut she opted to several times go statically to hold 36, without getting a +. All the other, who seemed taller, did use hold 35 and as they did a movement towards the next hold they did get a +. From the picture we can see that hold 34 is closer to hold 36 and it feels very strange that you can only get a + by moving from hold 35. I mean, as she had used hold 35 and it turns out that the best sequence for her is using hold 34, this must be allowed to do so and get a +. For me this is totally unfair.

During the male final it looked like the wall was heated up as the best qualifiers started to fight even low down and in the end Stefano Ghisolfi and Jakob Schubert were not even close to make it to the final. Winner of the semi was Tomoa Narasaki and in total four from Japan made it through. Then Janja Garnbret dropped her chalk bag before clipping the first bolt and had to fight hard even in the middle section. Later she was trying to brush the sweat from her hands on her shorts. Strangely the commentators did not notice her extreme situation. Once moving up on the upper more crimpy section, she put in her normal cruise control again becoming the only one topping out. Runner up, also in cruise control, was 15 year old Chaehyon Seo from Korea and this was the very moment a new star was born. Previously we had een Jessica Pilz falling at the second crux but as a matter of a fact she did seem to have hard times also on some easier moves.

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.