Janja Garnbret and Adam Ondra win first Bouldering World Cup in Meiringen

The Bouldering World Cup 2019 started on Friday beneath heavy spring snowfall in Meiringen, Switzerland, and after the 8-month break the much-awaited new season finally brought the best of the world together under one roof. Expectations were sky-high, also because the best athletes after the stages in Moscow, Chongqing, Wujiang, Munich and Vail are admitted to compete in the qualifiers for the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020. The tension, right from the outset on Friday morning, was palpable with star athletes such as Jan Hoyer (21), Sean McColl (24), Jakob Schubert (43) and Jessica Pilz (21) failing to make the top-20 cut for Saturday's semis.

After two intense days of competitions, the men's finals dominated by the Japanese all came down the last boulder problem. As the top 6 confronted problem #4, the podium was already decided, yet it wasn't clear which medal Tomoa Narasaki, Rei Sugimoto and Adam Ondra would walk away with. Kororo Fuji had already settled for fourth, South Korea's Jongwon Chon for fifth and Tomoaki Takata for sixth, meaning that the final three climbers were going to have to battle it out on the final boulder. Which, as it happens, didn't offer dynamic coordination moves that everyone had been training for over the winter break, but some burly handjams rarely seen on the competition circuit. In truth Chon had managed to pounce past the jam to reach the zone, but he then failed to make headway, while all others became unstuck in the heinous jam. Including those gunning for the win, Narasaki and Sugimoto, who failed to make any headway whatosever. This meant that last out Ondra needed just a zone to win. Would he do it? The crowd roared with excitement and Ondra, after having climbed the Dawn Walland almost onsighted Salathé Wall on El Capitan, instantly gave a masterclass in jamming technique: he wedged in his left hand, effortlessly turned to the crowd and cheered in delight, then cruised to the top to win the first World Cup of the season. The route setters had taken a big gamble and it had payed off. What a finish!

In the women's event, problem #4 proved decisive, too. Janja Garnbret was in the lead with Shauna Coxsey trailing immediately behind, but only due to countback indicating that after her long injury she's back on form, followed by Akiyo Noguchi who in the Semis had tied with Garnbret. Not much separated the top three but the final hurdle proved simply too savage for Coxsey. Garnbret then stuck the dyno on her second attempt to gain the zone before falling off the top hold and topping out on her third attempt. Hearing the crowd roar, last-out Noguchi knew she needed to top out. What she didn't know was that even with a top, Garnbret had already secured victory. But Noguchi delivered the goods nevertheless, on her third attempt just like the Slovenian. By the smallest of margins, victory to Garnbret therefore. This season will prove interesting.

RESULTS WOMEN MEIRINGEN 2019
1 Janja Garnbret SLO 3T4z66
2 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 3T4z912
3 Shauna Coxsey GBR 2T3z34
4 Fanny Gibert FRA 1T2z42
5 Petra Klingler SUI 1T1z11
6 Oceania Mackenzie AUS 1T1z22
7 Alex Johnson USA
8 Kyra Condie USA
9 Futaba Ito JPN
10 Afra Hönig GER
11 Sandra Lettner AUT
12 Katja Kadic SLO
13 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR
14 Berit Schwaiger AUT
15 Alannah Yip CAN
16 Lucka Rakovec SLO
17 Julia Chanourdie FRA
17 Sol Sa KOR
19 Julia Pinggera AUT
20 Emily Phillips GBR
21 Jessica Pilz AUT
21 Hannah Slaney GBR
23 Camilla Moroni ITA
23 Mattea Pötzi AUT
25 Anna Borella ITA
25 Nanako Kura JPN
27 Ai Mori JPN
27 YueTong Zhang CHN
29 Mia Krampl SLO
29 Brooke Raboutou USA
31 Sofya Yokoyama SUI
31 Anna Zaikina RUS
33 Vita Lukan SLO
33 Viktoriia Meshkova RUS
35 Natsumi Hirano JPN
35 Jain Kim KOR
37 Flora Froese AUS
37 Margo Hayes USA
39 Julijana Kruder SLO
39 Urska Repusic SLO
41 Chloe Caulier BEL
41 Vera Zijlstra NED
43 Naile Meignan FRA
43 Aida Torres Illamola ESP
45 Manon Hily FRA
45 Andrea Kümin SUI
47 Valiantsina Chamiakina BLR
47 Heloïse Doumont BEL
49 Alma Bestvater GER
49 Franziska Sterrer AUT
51 Anouck Jaubert FRA
51 Mao Nakamura JPN
53 Miriam Fogu ITA
53 Michelle Hulliger SUI
53 Elisa Van Der Wel GER
53 Jennifer Wood GBR
57 Maëlys Agrapart FRA
57 Hannah Meul GER
59 Lucie Delcoigne BEL
59 Laura Rogora ITA
61 Eliska Adamovska CZE
61 Margaryta Zakharova UKR
63 Andrea Rojas ECU
63 Kajsa Rosen SWE
65 Valentina Aguado ARG
65 Anne-Sophie Koller SUI
65 Vanda Michalkova SVK
65 Katrine Vandet Salling DEN
69 ZhuoYing Chen CHN
70 Ashima Shiraishi USA
71 Elena Krasovskaya RUS
71 Iuliia Panteleeva RUS
71 Annika Pidde GER
71 Nika Potapova UKR
75 Hannah Hermann SUI
75 Hung Ying Lee TPE
75 Yael Taub ISR
78 Natalie Bärtschi SUI
78 LINDA Sjödin SWE
78 Tiba Vroom NED
81 Marie Colot BEL
82 Heeyeon Park KOR
83 Sanja-Riia Collin FIN
83 Zoé Egli SUI
83 Olga Fedyuk POR
83 Yuliya Keremedchieva BUL
83 Aliaksandra Misiukevich BLR
83 Nikki Van Bergen NED
89 Rut Monsech Gasca ESP
90 Nóra Király HUN
91 Giulia Medici ITA
92 Julia Meijer NED
93 Rong Jiang CHN
93 Iqamah Nurul INA
93 Choirul Umi Cahyaning Ayub INA
96 Beatriz Coimbra POR
96 Anastasiia Evgeneva RUS
96 Salsabila Salsabila INA
99 Lisa Hardiquest BEL
99 Aries Susanti Rahayu INA

RESULTS MEN MEIRINGEN 2019
1 Adam Ondra CZE 4T4z109
2 Tomoa Narasaki JPN 3T3z76
3 Rei Sugimoto JPN 2T3z67
4 Kokoro Fujii JPN 1T3z35
5 Jongwon Chon KOR 1T3z38
6 Tomoaki Takata JPN 1T1z11
7 Aleksey Rubtsov RUS
8 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
9 Taisei Ishimatsu JPN
10 Keita Dohi JPN
11 Jernej Kruder SLO
12 Tim Reuser NED
13 YuFei Pan CHN
14 Alex Khazanov ISR
15 Anze Peharc SLO
16 Alexander Megos GER
17 Nathaniel Coleman USA
18 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA
19 Nathan Phillips GBR
20 Gregor Vezonik SLO
21 Kai Harada JPN
21 Jan Hojer GER
21 Rei Kawamata JPN
24 Sean Mccoll CAN
25 Marcello Bombardi ITA
25 Florian Klingler AUT
27 Mickael Mawem FRA
27 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
29 William Bosi GBR
29 Alfons Dornauer AUT
29 Meichi Narasaki JPN
32 Fedir Samoilov UKR
33 Ram Levin ISR
33 Elko Schellingerh. NED
35 Gholamali Baratzadeh IRI
35 Rudolph Ruana USA
37 Loïc Timmermans BEL
37 Vadim Timonov RUS
39 Tamás Farkas HUN
39 Yannick Flohé GER
41 Manuel Cornu FRA
41 Simon Lorenzi BEL
43 Martin Stranik CZE
43 Sergii Topishko UKR
45 Bjørn Arnel Iisager DEN
45 Nils Favre SUI
47 Nikolai Iarilovets RUS
47 Jakob Schubert AUT
49 David Barrans GBR
49 Jakub Konecny CZE
51 Alban Levier FRA
51 Nimrod Marcus ISR
53 Zach Galla USA
53 Domen Skofic SLO
53 Zan Sudar Lovenjak SLO
56 Nicolai Uznik AUT
57 Max Kleesattel GER
57 Aidan Roberts GBR
59 Sean Bailey USA
59 Sascha Lehmann SUI
61 Cesar Grosso BRA
61 Yuval Shemla ISR
63 Sam Avezou FRA
63 Romain Desgranges FRA
63 Sergei Skorodumov RUS
66 Matic Kotar SLO
67 Theis Lindegren Elfenbein DEN
67 William Ridal GBR
67 Rolf Fredrik Serlachius SWE
70 Philipp Martin GER
71 Kevin Heiniger SUI
71 Georg Parma AUT
73 Nino Grünenfelder SUI
73 Hannes Puman SWE
75 Benjamin Blaser SUI
75 Thilo Jeldrik Schröter NOR
77 Eric Lopez Mateos ESP
77 Sergei Luzhetskii RUS
77 Mykhayil Tkachuk UKR
80 Dylan Barks USA
81 Mikel Asier Linacisoro Molina ESP
81 Soma Strommer HUN
83 Javier Cano Blazquez ESP
83 Amir Nouri IRI
85 Louis Bétrisey SUI
85 Dominik Haertl AUT
87 Dylan Chuat SUI
87 Don Van Laere NED
89 Philipp Geisenhoff SUI
89 Lasa Temi INA
91 Leto Cavé NED
91 Luka Potocar SLO
93 Stepan Stranik CZE
93 Francesco Vettorata ITA
95 Carlos Granja ECU
95 Thomas Salakenos BEL
97 Arnaud Ansion BEL
97 Dimitri Vogt SUI
99 Ludovico Fossali ITA
99 Or Miniely ISR
101 Fatchur Roji INA
101 Aleksandr Shikov RUS
103 Ben Abel AUS
103 Tomi Salo FIN
105 João Evora POR
105 Tommi Haapala FIN
107 Singh Adarsh IND
107 Mark Chan Chong Kiat SGP
109 Bohdan Botnar UKR
109 Aliaksandr Ivanou BLR
111 Ionut-Cosmin Atomei ROU
111 Ode Rifaldi Ridjaya INA
113 Aspar Jaelolo INA
113 Danny Valencia ECU
115 Alfian Muhammad INA