I think that we, in a few years, are going to consider this year's World Championships in Paris as a key moment for the sport. This was, in short, a spectacular show, where virtually everything, from route setting, via dramaturgy to camera work worked perfectly. I loved it!

For those of you who missed it, there is no need for despair, just go to The IFSC-channel on Youtube and watch it again and again.

The results:

Bouldering Women
1. Mélanie Sandoz, FRA
2. Olga Iakovleva, RUS
3. Anna Stöhr, AUT

Bouldering Men
1. Dmitry Sharafutdinov, RUS
2. Kilian Fischhuber, AUT
3. Rustam Gelmanov, RUS

Lead Women
1. Angela Eiter, AUT
2. Jain Kim, KOR,5th in bouldering and combined World Champion
3. Johanna Ernst, AUT

Lead Men
1. Jakob Schubert, AUT
2. Sean McColl, CAN, 4th in Bouldering and combined World Champion
3. Adam Ondra, CZE

For me, the biggest surprise, although not a huge one, was Mélanie Sandoz' win. I knew she had it in her, but Anna Stöhr always seem to have something extra to pull out of the bag when needed. This didn't happen this time.
In 4th place, 40 year old Cecile Avezou did her best competition ever exactly at the right moment and was very close to snatch the medal from Anna.

Dima Sharafutdinov had a, by his standards, awful start to the season and says that he, at that point couldn't even imagine himself on the podium. On top of that, he had a miserable start to the final and was in last place after the first problem. It takes a strong head to turn things around from that point, but he could and managed to become world champion for the third time.

No real surprises in the women's lead final and the route setting was, once again, perfect.

In the men's final, I guess many had expected more from Adam Ondra, but rock and plastic is definitely not the same thing and I think that showed somewhat. Ramón Julian Puigblanque looked super strong when he topped out the semi final route, and was very much the man to beat. Unfortunately he was unable to find the right sequence through the roof and fell after having reversed several times.
Instead, Jakob Schubert could first cruise and then fight his way to only two holds shy of the top on the 8c/+ route. No one else could match that and voilá, Jakob Schubert is our Lead World Champion 2012.