Stasa Gejo won the qualification and was the only one to top all five problems and she flashed them all. In the semifinal, she was #13 with zero tops. "Not a good thing to start last... I couln't show my best today mostly because of external conditions and this is not complaining, this is a fact." Beside that negative surprise, all the big names made it through except Petra Klinger. Sandra Lettner, 16, who won the Combined Youth WCH last year is also in the final. Among the male, a similar situation for Nathaniel Coleman who did go form #1 in the qually to #17 in the semifinal. A big surprise was also Jan Hojer as #18. Beside that, all the big names made it to the final including also Tomoaki Takata. In total, Japan had five guys Top-10 but just two in the final. With the old rule, Japan would have had four finalists. All eight boulders was topped out although two boulders was good enough for the male and just one boulder for the female. Complete results ( c) Eddie Fowke, The Circuit Climbing capturing Jernej Kruder who is the the final 18.30. Noteworthy is that USA sent a big team of eight climbers and they did just get two semis who both ended #17. 1. Akiyo Noguchi - Jakob Schubert 2. Janja Garnbret - Tomoa Narasaki 3. Shauna Coxsey - Manu Cornu 4. Miho Nonaka - Tomoaki Takata 5. Sandra Lettner - Jongwon Chon 6. Fanny Gibert - Jernej Kruder & Alexey Rubtso

Jernej Kruder started first of seven finalists and set the bar on extraordinary boulder which all where topped. Boulder two, which he did, including a dynamic quintupleside ways might be one of the most spectacular IFSC boulder as it later was done static as well with a triple double dyno. The Slovenian multi-discipline climber, who prepared himself last weekend by projecting a 9a, is known for his topping celebration face which we got to see often. (c) Eddie Fowke Among the female, the boulders were a little bit to easy as we saw three girls topping out all four boulders with Miho Nonaka winning topping out in only five attempts. 1. Miho Nonaka JPN 44 (5) - Jernej Kruder SLO 34 2. Janja Garnbret SLO 44 (7) - Tomoa Narasaki JPN 24 (3) 3. Akiyo Noguchi JPN 44 (9) - Alexei Rubtsov RUS 24 (5) 4. Sandra Lettner AUT 34 - Jakob Schubert AUT 23 5. Fanny Gibert FRA (33) - Tomoaki Takata JPN 13 6. Shauna Coxsey GBR -(23) Jongwon Chon KOR 7. Manu Cornu FRA Complete results

Alexander Feichter has made the FA of Frozen Water 8C in Gais which is a 35+ moves link up of an 8B+ roof into an 8A. In 2016, he put another 8C in Gais which is unrepeated. "The Frozen Water line maintains a very strong climbing steal. In addition to the maximum power emphasized passages, an enormous power endurance requirement is added. In short, you will not be able to relax on the entire Boulder. The higher the reward at the end! Overjoyed, I reached the Top with inflated arms."

In Group 1, there were 17 male that topped out all five boulders out of which seven did not make it to the semifinal. In Group 2, everyone ranked from #7 to 38 did just top two the the first two boulders. As expected, Japan dominated with seven in the Top-20 semifinal and ten among the Top-23. Complete results How odd as it might seem, nevertheless, there were no sensational results beside possibly that the winners of the groups were not the most famous once; Roland Rugens, Nathaniel Coleman, Mickael Mawem, Yuji Fujiwaki. The semifinal is live streamed tomorrow starting at 11.00 and you will fine it here on 8a.

Loic Zehani has done his first 9a+, Shashidananda in Orgon which took him ten days. First he recorded it as a "hard" 9a, check video, as this was what Gérôme Pouvreau indicated as FA in 2009. After Loic's ascent Gérôme has said he thinks it is 9a+. "I'm so happy to sent this route because I have passed under it for several years without having neither the level nor the courage to try it! I always think it's 9a+, like a lot of climbers, but with my lake of experience I wanted to be affirmative."

Zander Waller has on his seventh try done his second 8c+, Southern Smoke in Red River Gorge. The day before he flashed Omaha Beach giving it a personal 8b grade. "Well, I wasn't quite sure I would send Southern Smoke as I wasn't getting very close on it, but the first time I stuck the last move of the crux from the ground, I managed to take it to the top. In fact, Connor did it second try; it was one of the most impressive things I have ever seen! (That truly unique story will be followed up). As for Omaha Beach, my friend found some new beta on the beach crux section, and it ended up feeling much easier than a majority of the 8b's I have done."

The Boulderingen World Cup starts this Friday in Meiringen in Switzerland with a record number of competitors, 109 male and 102 female. Two years ago, 84 male and 59 female participated! With 12 male Japanese competing, it just might be that almost half of the semifinalist are from Japan and here is our speculation of the final result. Runner-ups could be Alex Megos and Alexei Rubtsov respectively Stasa Gejo and Alma Bestwater. Last year winner Shauna Coxey has been injured and thus not ranked #1. 1. Janja Garnbret - Jongwon Chon 2. Japanese - Japanese 3. Japanese - Japanese 4. Shauna Coxey - Japanese 5. Japanese - Japanese 6. Fanny Gibert - Jan Hojer With the new rule, giving higher priority for zones, it just might be that zones will be placed a bit higher which, on the other hand, many will score zero. It should also be mentioned that meanwhile Janja and Shauna have finished their qualification 17.30, the last females out will finish around 21.00. The different resting periods might have an impact during the semifinal starting at 11.00, which will be live-streamed and that goes also for the finals starting 18.45 for the female and 20.00 for the male.

David Fitzgerald, who started climbing in 2012 being 18 years old, has done Big Paw 8B+ (C) in Chironico. "This is one of the best lines I've ever seen and the hardest I've climbed abroad. Using the mini-compression method, I had many doubts whether or not I could piece this one together on this short trip to Ticino, especially given how warm it has become here in Chironico lately. Ya gotta keep trying, though. Under the floodlights, I managed to put all doubt aside and stand on top of one of the best lines in the world! I can't express how happy this makes me feel. This one felt desperate on day one, conceivable on day two and effortless on day three. Funny how that can happen sometimes. Lines don't get much better than this! The whole trip is being documented by the Puzzleglass team for their upcoming film, 'The Blocbuster Project'". I can totally understand how someone taller might consider their method hard 8B+, though. It’s almost impossible to compare these vastly different methods and class them under the same grade. I believe the majority of opinions are split, some suggesting 8B+ and some suggesting 8C, so I’m just throwing my honest opinion into the discussion. It’s completely personal and subjective, but I’m satisfied that what I climbed was a step up to anything I’ve done abroad."