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.

Seb Bouin has done another 9a, Super Finale in Rawyl in just four tries. It total, he has now done some 35 routes 9a to 9b. "It was the most extreme conditions of the year. First day we only climbed one route, it was cold, super windy, and waterfall from the crag was falling on the belayer... Second day we were stronger in the head, and it worked"

During the Speed qualification in Chongqing, we can see that both the Specialists and the Boulderers, set new standards. Kokoro Fujii did 6.62 which is the second fastest ever, after Mickael Mawem at 6.34, by a none-Speed specialist. Manuel Cornu was runner up at 6.68 and Jan Hojer third at 6.76 among the big names. Another eight did were below 7.2 seconds, so we are talking a big general improvement. Among the female, Janja Garnbret set a new personal best with 9.46 being #3 among the none-Speed specialist after Elena Krasovskaya at 8.96 and Sol Sa at 9.41. Kyra Kondie was fourth at 9.56 followed by 16 year old Oceania Mackenzie at 9.64. Akiyo Noguchi, Petra Klingler and Julia Chanourdie did also go below 10 seconds. Complete results

It’s Dolorock time! From May 24 to 26 the seventh edition of the Dolorock Climbing Festival will take place all around the Three Peaks. For three days, there will be climbing, celebrations and discussions at the cross-language and cross-border event. Over time, Dolorock has become one of the largest sports climbing events in Europe. Join and be part of it! Program: Friday, 24/5 at 9pm: drive-in cinema at the Dobbiaco indoor climbing centre. Saturday, 25/5 from 10am to 5pm: Dolorock Red Point Fight at the climbing crags in Val di Landro. 7:30pm: award ceremony with many non-cash prizes. Afterwards party, dance (Pink Armada), food and drinks. Free camping. Sunday, 26/5: climbers’ brunch and Yoga for climbers.

YiLing Song has set a new World Record by 7.101 seconds in the Quarterfinal run, dispatching the old mark of 7.32 held by both Iuliia Kaplina and Anouck Jaubert. Song continued winning as she also did in the first event. (c) Eddie Fowke Among the male, Alifan Muhammed won his first event. His fastest time was 5.91 which actually was slower then the all the Top-5 best times. Two weeks ago Akifan was #24 and his best in 2018 was #6. Video of the finals. Complete results

Rock & Ice has made a nice portrait of Kyle Roseborrough who died in Leonidio ten days ago "when an anchor failed as he lowered." It should be mentioned that it is not clear what happened as no problem with the anchor bolts have been reported. Kyle (45) was a very experienced 8b climber.

During Boulder World Cup finals, normally each boulder are lighten up by a spotlight just few minutes before the first person enters. Then the holds are in constant spotlight and get continuously warmed up for some 24 minutes. This means that the conditions deteriorate minute by minute which make the last climber, the winner of the semi, face the worst friction. It should be noted that in the Olympic finals with eight climbers, the last climber face holds that have been in the spotlight for some 32 minutes. The simple solution to get more fair conditions during the finals is to use led-spotlights.