Marine Thevenet, #7 in the Boulder World Cup in 2014, reports on Insta that she has done Fred Nicole's La danse des Balrogs original 8A+ in Branson, in just three sessions. In total she has now done 27 boulders 8A to 8B and her goal is to do 30 before turning in few months. (c) Clément Lechaptois "I prefer to spend my week-ends discovering boulders instead of climbing gym or during competitions. But it doesn't mean that I stopped climbing or training!"

Zhanan Zou, a.k.a. Bruce, has climbed Ty Landman’s Midnight Express 8B+ in Boulder Canyon, potentially becoming the first Chinese climber to climb the grade. Previously he had done two 8B's. Bruce started climbing at age 26 after moving from China to Boulder, Colorado in 2014. A week before the ascent of Midnight Express he successfully defended his PhD thesis in Mechanical Engineering. He wants to continue to pursue his research, and hopes to develop boulders in China, to open up a new level of climbing for Chinese climbers. Video finishing with screaming louder than Ondra and Sharma together :) (c) Cesar Valencia

Samuel Ometz has done Bain de Sang 9a in St Loup which Fred Nicole put up in 1993. "Soft Very interesting route! Felt desperate at first, 2 days to figure out the moves and another 2 to send. Hard to grade."

Zander Waller, #7 in both Lead and Bouldering in the last YWCH, has done his first 8B, Booka Booka Booka in Moe's Valley. ”Super happy to have sent Booka in one session, I think it may be soft but I'm not sure; I haven't really tried any other v13s. The big move was hard for me but on the send everything lined up perfectly and I managed to stick it. I think I need to start trying more hard boulders soon. I'm focused on comps after the end of my trip, next stop is tuck fest DWS, then the Come and Send It Fest, and Youth Sport Nationals. After that I will be training for youth world's in Arco.”

Giuseppe Nolasco has done his first 9a, Ground Zero in Tetto di Sarre after projecting it for 19 weekends since 2011. The last winter he trained very hard for it. (c) Gianluca Bosonin "I tried Ground Zero for the first time in 2011, I directly had good vibes and actually after a few weekends I fell off the last hold when I couldn't clip the chain. For years I didn't try it again, just one short session in 2017 and a more attempt in 2018. After a great winter training, finally on 7 April I sent my first 9a, first ascended by Alberto Gnerro."

Article from Munich World Cup in 2017 Talking to many of the Japanese coaches and athletes in regards to their extreme recipe for success, it is about problem solving in a challenging interactive mode. There is no Japanese secret, they just go to the gym five times a week and basically just have fun doing and interacting on spectacular boulders, and stretch every day. The focus from their coaches is technique. Strengh weaknesses are solved by doing specific boulders rather than hanging on a campus board etc. In Munich there were five coaches filming and writing comments on their athlete feedback paper. The culture is about learning new things and interacting in order to optimize their performance. After the comp they talk to the route setters and then they all show up trying to solve the problems again, again and again. At the same time the after party starts, the Japanese have their after climb on the stage in their sneakers. Once their competitors are drinking beers, tape is put on trying to stop the blood in order to squeeze in some more crazy double or triple dynos. "Gamba!"

Japan had seven male in the semifinal and all in Top-10, together with #1 Adam Ondra, #5 Jongwon Chon and #7 Aleksey Rubtsov and Jongwon Chon. (c) Eddie Fowke Updated live results

Mathieu Pauwels has done his second 9a, Era Vella in Margalef after some five weeks of projecting. (c) Julien VDV "The first time I tried it was in company of my idol Muriel Sarkany. At first, Era Vella was not a goal for me. I just tried it and I realized that I had some facilities in the movements. The only problem for me, the 45/50 meters to climb but in all sincerity it was not my first objective. I had just done my first 9a (Punt'X) and I was looking for a new project. I am finally free and happy to add this pearl to my notebook cross. A big thank you to all the people who followed me in this project!"

The last boulder had a jamming section that none of the first five finalist could do what so ever. Adam Ondra, starting last as he won the semifinal, had to do the jam and get a zone to secure the win. He squeezes in his left hand and it get stuck so well so he drops the right hand and waves to the crowd celebrating him. One more jam and he continues with ease and create the perfect ending as well as start of the Boulder World Cup. The coming week, the Japanese and the rest of the gang will have to do some old school jamming training. (c) Eddie Fowke 1. Adam Ondra 44 (4T4z) 2. Tomoa Narasaki 33 3. Rei Sugimoto 23 4. Kokoro Fujii 13 (3,5 attempts) 5. Jongwon Chon 13 (3,8) 6. Tomoaki Takata 11 Complete results