Niccolo Ceria and Martin Mobråten have both repeated Bernd Zangerl's Shantaram, 8C in Osen, Norway. (c) Stefan Kuerzi Ceria, who has done 8C before, just used three days for his send and Mobråten some ten days. He has previously done a few 8B+ and thinks Shantarm should be graded likewise.

1. Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN - Claire Buhrfeind USA 2. Meichi Narasaki JPN - Aika Tajima JPN 3. Kai Lightner USA - Heloise Doumont BEL 4. Taito Nakagami JPN - Victoria Perkins USA Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke The result says it all. The Youth World Championship is just about to become a Japan and USA battle in Lead and Bouldering. Japan has gotten six golds and USA five. Talking about number of medals, Japan has been awarded by 17 and USA 9. Europe, who always has dominated the Youth World Championships, has just one gold and a total of ten medals. In the Youth World Champion in 2015 in Arco, Japan got six medals in total out of which one gold. Europe got eight golds and a total of 24 medals. The tables have completely turned in just two years. It should also be mentioned that while the best nations in Europe often have participated with six guys in each category, Japan has just participated with 2 - 4 athletes in each category.

Due the tied results, Youth B 13 boys made it to the finals that will be live tonight. Among the girls, Japan got four to the final out of which three ranked Top-4. Complete results For the Junior boys, 12 made it to the final tomorrow also due to tied results. Among the girls, the Top-6 only had two different results meaning that time could be an issue if they are also tied in the final.

As in the boulder event, Japan took all three medals among the girls in Youth B and in fact, they all topped in a rather comfortable style. Among the boys, Collin Duffy was the only one to top meanwhile the others getting a medal, failed to hold the top jug. (c) Eddie Fowke 1. Collin Duffy USA - Ai Mori JPN 2. Alberto Gines ESP - Natsuki Tanii 3. Hidemasha Nishida JPN - Futaba Ito JPN Complete results Read more at the YWCH website report

Excluding Speed, Japan has been totally superior in the Youth World Champion with 4 golds and a total of 13 medals. Runner up is USA with 3 golds and 5 medals in total. Europe has gotten the rest of the medals, 1 gold and a total of 6 medals. In the the Youth World Champion in 2015 in Arco, Japan got six medals in total out of which one gold. Europe got eight golds and a total of 24 medals. It is like a complete up-side down turn over in just two years. It should also be mentioned that meanwhile the best nations in Europe often have participated with six guys in each category, Japan has just participated with 2 - 4 athletes in each category. As climbing is getting into the Olympics in Tokyo 2020, what we have seen so far, also among the seniors, is just a beginning of a total domination. Remember that the Japanese boulderers said after Munich that their success recipe has nothing to do with physical training, instead they almost only just tried to do as many boulder challenges as possible.

It is amazing to see that the route setters almost always find a good difficulty level in Bouldering. When there are complaints, it is always that the problems were too hard meaning it becomes boring for both the climbers and the spectators who want to see tops. In general this indicates that route setters should go for easier boulders and possibly IFSC should set a standard, what is the optimum difficulty level. Here is an example that, in general, would increase the enjoyment for everyone. 1. One third of the finalists respectively the ones going to the next round should make all boulders. 2. Two thirds of the competitors of each round should make at least one boulder. If the route setters had difficulty recommendations like this, surely, we would once in a while more that six guys in the semifinal topping out all boulders which is not ideal. In the Youth World's it happened once but even so, everyone was happy. The climbers, coaches and spectators are willing to take that risk of too easy boulders in order to avoid anti-climax setting where possibly 1 % of the tries made it to the top.

Jakob Kronberger, who previoulsy has done four 9a's has done his seventh 8c+, Speck in Salzburger Land. "I tried the route every once in a while over the past one and a half years. I never really liked the moves, so I did not get into projecting it that hard. Now that the conditions are getting better, I was able to climb it without that much time effort. The route used to be 8c, but a foothold broke off and since then nobody climbed it again. I think 8c+ should be ok. I am not in Innsbruck because I just prefer rockclimbing over competitions. I do not want to spent the time that would be needed to do really well in the climbing gym. At least not for now."

Alex Megos has some kind of new record doing an 8c or harder in seven days in a row during his "Old school classics" tour around Switzerland. Here is his amazing tick list including also an eigtht day, in a row, going to Arco. Patrick Matros, one of Megos' coaches, accompanied him on the marathon tour where it also rained most of the days. "It was important for Alex to meet some of the 1st ascenders like Beat Kammerlander and Eric Talmadge. His aim was, to repeat some of the hard ultraclassics of Switzerland. Not so much to throw down every hard route there, despite his long list." Day 1. Speed 8c+ (2nd Go) 2. Speed Integral 9a (6th Go) 3. Ravage 8c. Enfant de Boheme 8c, L'appel de la foret 8c: (All 2nd Go) 4. Im Reich des Shogun 9a (3rd Go) Thomas Ballenberger 5. Les temps difficiles 8c+, Rammstein 8c, two 8b+': (All 2nd Go) 6. Coup de Grace 9a (2nd Go) 7. Deus Irae 8c+ (2nd Go) The eighth day in a row, Alex drove to Arco and had a gym session with Stefano Ghisolfi and later he did Sid Lives 9a and Bucking Bronco 8c+.

Alex Puccio, who just won Arco Rock Master for the fourth time in a row, has done her third 8B+ boulder, New Base Line in Magic Wood. "So psyched! Awesome boulder!" Her hard core grade pyramid is perfect and the runner up in the world championship 2014, is superior among the female outdoors. It looks like she soon is ready for an 8C. Alex is #1 in the female ranking game which she has been almost straight for six years, in spite of some bad injuries.