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

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.

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

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