Piotr Schab, who just the last year has done four 9a+', has done his first 9b Fight or Flight in Oliana. In the 8a ranking game, the Pole has been runner up after Adam Ondra for more than a year. (c) Wojtek Kozakiewicz "It means a lot. 9b was a dream and Fight or Flight was a real challenge. I’ve never climbed such an intense route, usually my hardest climbs were long and endurance - styled. I had to adapt to a faster style of climbing and take more risks than ever, but it was a great game. It took me 22 days in total, out of which 15 in 2018. Still have two more weeks in here so I hope to use them well and choose some projects for the upcoming trips."

Giuliano Cameroni did the FA of REM and Poision the Well in February. In the 8a ranking game, the 21 year old is #3. Now he is in Colorado for seven weeks, then Brazil and Rocklands. "I wanna climb as much as possible and take advantage of the chance I have to travel around the world. I will do my best to climb all the hard problems that I will try. Sykd!

Diego Fourbet has done the FA of a 9a extension to La Proue Debridee 8c+ in Roche de Rame which he did last year. Diego started climbing being three years old and since age six, he has been training with a club. More info on his Insta. The 16 year old is the son of the famous French climbing couple, Nathalie (ex-Richer) and Olivier Fourbet. "Antony Lamiche bolted the project six years ago. I spend six session on the route but the first part of the route is the same that a route I did last year. I have always traveled in Europe with my parents where I climb and boulder in different areas. Since I am 14 I study in a special class to climb more (CIE DE BRIANCONS).

Martin Stráník, #2 in the WCH in 2007, has done his seventh 8C, Drift in Moravský kras. Kateřina Stráník "So, that went quite fast, 2 days. Great addition by Adam, maybe just 8B+, but i spent quite a lot of time on this type of rock what makes moves easier."

France dominated in the first European Bouldering Youth Cup in 2019 which took place in Souvre in Portugal. In total they got three golds and nine medals. The most superior winner was Oriane Bertone who did all all eight problems in the qualification on her first try. Germany got two golds and Austria one. Interesting is that these three countries won 16 out of the 18 medals. 04: Oriane Bertone FRA - Perry Bloem GER 02: Lucy Douady FRA - Lasse von Freier GER 00: Mattea Pötzi AUT - Pierre Le Cerf FRA Complete results

Anze Peharc won the semifinal ahead of Tomoa Narasaki and Kokoro Fujii, the only ones to make two boulders. Half of the field did not do one including Jakob Schubert #18 and Jongwon Chon #15 who were the Top-2 in their qualification group. Tomoa and Kokoro were also Top-3 in their respectively group as Aleksy Rubtsov who was #6 in the semi. Interesting is that Manuel Cornu and Sasha Lehman were #4 and #5 in the semi coming from being ranked #19 and #15 in the qualification. Anze Peharc was #11 in the semi so there were several up-side-down results from the qualifications, where 16 topped all five boulders. Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke

It was an almost perfect match in between the qualification and the semi for the female. Janja Garnbret and Katja Kadic, who won their qualification groups, were #1 and #2 also in the semi, being the only ones topping all four problems. They were followed by Akiyo Noguchi and Jessica Pilz who were #3 and #5 in the qualifications. The last two spots into the final took Petra Klingler and Futaba Ito, who were #3 and #9 in the qualification. Interesting is that nine female did not do any boulder in the semifinal so it seems there is a rather big gap in between the Top-20 best female boulderers in the world. Complete results

Last year, Anze Peharc was #16 as his best result out of six World Cups. In the last event, the WCH in Innsbruck he was #55. This year he has been 15 - 4 - 3 and overall he is #4 in the World Cup. The big breakthrough last year was made by Gregor Vezonik and interestingly, both are from Slovenia. Among the female, we have not seen any such sensational results overall but Lucka Rakovec's 16 - 4 - 12, sticks out. She is just 17 and also from Slovenia. The one struggling the most is Jakob Schubert. He is one of the best Lead competition climbers in the history and he was #3 in the last Bouldering comp in 2018. His average results in the first three Boulder WCs in 2019 are 31 after having been; 47 - 27 - 18. Also Sean McColl, who has won 13 medals in Bouldering WC's including one silver last year, has had a relatively bad start, 24 - 33 - 14.

Adam Ondra did cancel his trip due to being sick and Jernej Kruder, who won in Moscow, was #34 in Chongqing. For some reason the Slovenian failed to even get a zone on the first boulder which some 60 % topped in his group. Later Kruder did the remaining four boulders in just seven tries. (c) Eddie Fowke Winners of the two groups were Tomoa Narasaki and Jakob Schubert needeing only six respective seven tries for the five boulders. In total, six from Japan into the Top-20 semifinal and once again all ten male from Japan among Top-31. Complete results

Slovenia did dominate the female qualification in Chongqing where Janja Garnbret and Katja Kadic won their respectively group. The two million country also had Lucka Rakovec as #3 and Vita Lukan as #11. Interesting is that the Speed specialists Anna Tsyganova and Anouck Jaubert set personal best being #31 and #39. Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke - Jain Kim #7.