Peter Crane, who started the petition Cancel the IFSC Live-streaming subscription fee, which 12 000 have signed, has been in contact with IFSC directly. Based on the communication and the lack of answers, Peter has written a very critical article under the headline, Behind the Deal – is the IFSC President hiding?, which ends. "On the IFSC homepage, Marco Maria Scolaris (IFSC President) promotes "good governance", "transparency" and "athletes [sic] inclusion in the IF decision-making processes at all levels". Marco Maria Scolaris' job as IFSC President is to govern in a way that reflects those values, not to do the opposite. In this sense, we believe he has failed as IFSC President. With climbing en route to the Olympics, we feel the federation needs a stronger, more qualified leadership team than ever – and one that practices the values it preaches. Marco Maria Scolaris, if you are listening, come out of the dark and give the international community the honest, transparent response they deserve." The article also links to Liam Lonsdale - BREAKING IT DOWN: THE IFSC PAYWALL FIASCO. (c) Eddie Fowke

Az első bouldervilágkupát, számos érdekesség fűszerezte. Először is az IFSC szerződése, miszerint fizetőssé szeretnék tenni a világkupák élő közvetítését. Ez ellen számos versenyző és világsztár lázadt fel, s a forró hangulat a Meiringeni világkupa megnyitóján sem maradt el. Másodszor mi is érdekeltek voltunk, kis hazánkat Király Norci, Bajusz Balázs és Strommer Soma képviselték. Norci két zónával a 71. helyet csípte el, Bajusz Úr egy zóna flash-el a 99., Soma 3 zónával a 87. helyezést szerezték meg. Ezek a számok ugyan magasak, de ne felejtsük el - ez egy egészen más világ mint a hazai versenyek, illetve mindkét srác az első világkupáján debütált rutin nélkül. De az is érzékeltetheti a mezőny komolyságát ha azt mondom Daniel Woods 45. hely, Rustam Gelmanov 57. helyezés. A két hazai igen kemény boulderes legény pedig jelenleg a franciaországi Fontainebleau-ban van, ahol már a Bajszos be is zsebelte az első 7C-jét, de kíváncsian várjuk a Magyar csapattól a további eredményeket.

Chris Sharma and Olivia Hsu will run a Yoga & Climbing workshop in between 28/4 and 1/5 in St Llorenç de Montgai, just like last year. Olivia teaches in Boulder and has been practicing Ashtanga yoga for 17 years. "Climbing and Yoga are a natural fit. Both require very similar body awareness, mental challenges and harnessing the power of the breath. I think that climbers can hugely benefit from yoga by gaining more flexibility, strength and stability. Also on top of that it can help with the mental game or red pointing and also help them utilize their breath to help with climbing. I love sharing what I love and know. Yoga has really complimented my climbing in some many ways and not only climbing but my life in general. When you’re a happy and healthy human being that transcends to all the areas in your life. I love the positive influence yoga has on the body and the mind. Climbing is a physical sport but there is a more subtle layer- the mental layer and yoga had the ability to touch on all the layers of climbing. The postures allow people to move and breath and drop into a space where they can be present with themselves. When we climb we experience these moments – you have to be present and focused when you climb."

Jonathan Siegrist reports on Instagram that he has done Pachamama 9a+ in Oliana, which was put up by Chris Sharma in 2011. The American has previously done 18 9a's and four 9a+'. "I'll be unpacking the lessons learned from this process for a long time. Truly, it feels like a chapter in my life ended when I clipped the chains last night. A new level for my climbing and an experience I will never forget. Flooded with gratitude, 'Pachamama'... Onward." (c) Matty Hong

Matty Hong reports on Instagram with this great picture that his girlfriend Anna Liina Laitinen has done Joe Blau in Oliana which was is her second 8c+. After the Fin had done her first 8c+ in Dec 2016, she commented to 8a. How can you explain your fast progress in the last year? Travelling, training and the company I've been climbing with. One year ago I started training a lot, more than ever. But the progress is not only explained by training hard but the biggest improvement has been in a mental part of climbing and caused by just climbing a lot in a different places, different routes, and pushing myself to a situations I'm not feeling the most comfortable with. The company I've spent time and traveled have had a huge impact to my climbing as well. When your friends are climbing hard you naturally start trying harder routes. And I'm sure I wouldn't climb this hard without my positive boyfriend Matty Hong who's super psyched as well. Being super motivated and psyched to climb is my secret. And there's no end for it which is scary!

Shauna Coxsey, who won the Boulder WC last year, did all four boulders in a superior way. Besides that, we only saw nine successful attempts and contrary to the qualification and semi, the route setters miscalculated the difficulty. In fact, male winner Kokoro Fujii did just one boulder. The commentators mentioned that probably high temperatures in the arena created bad conditions for the athletes. The new max 4 min rule could also possibly explain the few tops. Overall, it also had a negative impact when it comes to excitement. It was great free live-streaming besides the fact that the commentators several times could not analyze the running results and sometimes they even miss-lead the viewers. (c) Eddie Fowke - The Circuit Climbing who has a gallery well worth checking out. 1. Shauna Coxsey 4t10 4b8 - Kokoro Fujii 1T1 3b6 2. Katharina Saurwein 2T6 3b13 - Alexey Rubtsov 1T2 2b8 3. Miho Nonaka 1T2 3b6 - Keita Watabe 1T3 2b12 Complete results What's interesting is that there were three Japanese in the Top-4 among the male and in the Top-21, seven were from Japan.

With 115 male participants, many big names failed to make the Top-20 semifinal: Narasaki, Bonder, Schubert, Skofic, Hori, McCall, Piccolruaz, Woods, Landman, Gelmanov, Verhoeven. The boulders were very nice and we did see many top-outs even from many guys lower down in the list. The biggest sensation was Thilo Schröter from Norway who was #3. Last week, he was featured on 8a as he is #1 in the flash ranking. Five Japanese made it and in fact, they had seven guys Top-21. Complete results

http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/images/World_competitions/Event_regulations/IFSC_Fee_System_2017-18_Approved.pdf

Three of the big names; Akiyo Noguchi, Margo Hayes and Anna Stöhr did not make it to the semi Top-20. Complete results

FloClimbing has based on the critiscism towards the USD 20 monthly to watch the streaming, commented. "We hear you, and we're offering a 7-day free trial for FloPRO subscribers on FloClimbing.com starting later today and lasting for the rest of this month. In addition, the archives for our April events will be available on-demand, without a subscription, three days after each event." Strangely enough, the link where you are supposed to click on to "Join", does not work. The live-streaming starts on Saturday 11.00 European time followed by the finals at 18.30.