Excellent route setting also for the female where Janja Garnbret had a bad start on the first boulder where she got a cut and bleeding a lot. Then in normal but amazing Janja style she finished the rest in six attempts. Runner up was Akiyo Noguchi who needed three more tries. Shauna Coxey, back from some injuries, was third and as a matter of a fact, she was tied with Janja after the first three boulders. Sixth was 16 year old, Oceania Mackenzie from Australia who just did her second World Cup. Interestingly, last year she did 9.69 in Speed and in all her three Lead WC, she made semi. In other words, her is a new name with a great possibility for making it to Tokyo. (c) Eddie Fowke 1. Janja Garnbret 34 (6) 2. Akiyo Noguchi 34 (9) 3. Shauna Coxsey 23 4. Fanny Gibert 12 5. Petra Klingler 11 6. Oceanina Mackenzie 10 Complete results

"If you have not been to Kyparissi yet, this is your chance: the extraordinary cliffs, exemplary hospitality, and intimate beauty of this little gem of a village in the southeast Peloponnese are ready to be experienced—or re-experienced—during its 2nd climbing festival over the weekend of May 10-12th, 2019. Even though Kyparissi is surrounded by beautiful cliffs, it didn’t break into the climbing scene until fairly recently. Some routes had been bolted previously at sector Watermill, but methodical equipping of well-bolted routes and crags started in 2015, thanks to the Climb Kyparissi project under the supervision of our own Aris Theodoropoulos." More info and a inspirational video.

After the final, the IFSC results did show that 16 year old Oceanina Mackenzie was #4. Then the french team made a protest saying she did an incorrect start at problem three, which was approved, meaning she lost her zone and dropped to #6. If Oceanina would have stopped trying after she got her zone, she would have been given at least one more try after the competition. One problem with such late calls is that in theory, a person like Oceanina could have topped the boulder and possibly advanced to the podium. Judges make mistake and if such situation will happen in Tokyo in could mean an anticlimax. Would if saying that any protest must be handed in within five minutes and then automatically an aster-ix (*) would be shown next to the result. It is super strange for everyone involved that the current ranking is changed after the medal ceremony and after the live-streaming is stopped.

Looking at the first climb of each grade list, Jim Holloway's Trice in Flagstaff from 1975 sticks out being the most ahead of it's time as it is considered 8A+ today. Totally amazingly, it took 32 years before it got it's first repeat by Carlo Traversi in 2007. Now it is one of the most repeated in the 8a data base with 32 ascents! Jim, born in 1954, started climbing at age sixteen. The 193 cm was one of the first boulderers to devote more than a few hours to creating a particular problem. In 1975 he put up Meathook in Horsetooth Reservoir as the world's first 8A, after some 20 days projecting. He was so serious with his training so he used some wooden rungs at home like a mini campus board. Later the same year he ade the FA of Trice 8A. (c) Pat Ament, who sends his portrait. "Calm, clear, caring, and unselfish, the thin, six-foot-six Jim Holloway climbed for his own pleasure and not to make himself look tall through making small the virtues of others. One spiteful remark heard back then in Holloway days on Flagstaff Mountain was that he eliminated all the difficulty with his tremendous reach. In fact, he and his graceful form were out of reach. He climbed for the right reasons, to experience the creativity, to be with friends, or to be alone, to know the solitude and beauty."

Jakob Schubert ended #43 and did not make it to the Top-20 semi-final. Japan participated with ten guys and their worst results was #30 and in total, seven guys made it to the semifinal. World Champion Kai Harada was #21. Nathaniel Coleman from USA and Nathan Philips GBR won the two groups. Other than that Adam Ondra and Tomoa Narasaki were runner-ups in their groups and Slovenia had three guys Top-13. The semifinal starts on Saturday 11.00 followed by the finals at 19.00. Complete results

Seven guys from Japan Top-10 just confirm that their domination in the sport is about getting unique. If Japan would have been allowed to send 50 male, it just might have been that they would have had 12-15 in the semi final. Their strong positive trend and the reasons for this have been discussed in several articles, see above. Team spirit and playful training focusing on technical challenges during endless hours instead of hard physical training seems for fewer hours seems to be the recipe. My best example of this was from Munich in 2017. Immediately after the final, the whole Japanese team stepped up on the scene and started trying the boulders in their sneakers. This kept going for 45 minutes and everyone was screaming "Gamba" and laughing until they started bleeding. At the same time, the rest of the gang was already down in the basement for the after party. Several coaches have told me the same story and that goes also for the Cafe Craft guys. They told me that they have never ever seen guys playing around in their gym for so many hours. In the end they started to follow them around and even after seven hours, the spirit was the same. The extreme domination by Japan is a risk for IFSC and possibly it is time to start adapt to the Japanese mentality in order to catch up, juat like Adam Ondra and Jongwon Chon have done.

Pietro Bassotto reports on Insta that he has done Extrema Cura in Gravere as his first 8c. Kind of impressive being 55 years old, video. Pietro started to climb more than 30 years ago and in 1989 he was #13 in a Speed World Cup. In 2010, being 47 years old, he did his first 8b+. In the last six months he has done four 8A's and two 8A+'. Lately, he has also done his first 8a onsight. When it comes to comps, nowadays he prefers boulders and last year he won la Tout À Blocs Tab among the veterans. "The reasons for my improvement are basically three: 1. I climb more in comparison to when had small children. 2. I am always very motivated. I am lucky to have a son "Davide" who climbs on 8c+/9a and 8B/+. He pushes me, especially when we train and climb together. 3. I only train the maximum strength to have the stimulus always high. I do pull-ups, I train on the wall of my house and I do Boulder outdoors.

Based on a poll with 300+ unique votes, who will win in Meiringen? 24 % Adam Ondra 18 % Tomoa Narasaki 16 % Jernej Kruder 12 % Jongwon Chon 07 % Jakob Schubert 06 % Alex Megos 15 % Others