IFSC commentator Charlie Boscoe puts down his headset and reports on the final IFSC Lead World Cup of the 2019 season in Inzai, Japan.

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Just two months on from the IFSC World Championships in Hachioji, we were back In Japan this weekend for the final Lead World Cup of the season. Over the past few years Japan has hosted an annual Boulder World Cup but this season they decided to hold a Lead comp and the World Championships, which is fine by me because I love the place and coming twice in one summer is no hardship.

Virtually all the IFSC folk and athletes headed over from Xiamen to Tokyo at the start of the week, primarily because the training facilities are much better in Japan than in Xiamen. I've been told there are 100 climbing gyms in Tokyo and it must be the best city in the world for indoor boulderers to train. The fact that everything in the city is interesting, colourful, fun and slightly bonkers also makes Tokyo a fun place for everyone to hang out for a week too.

Inzai itself is quite a long way from Tokyo and the venue was, frankly, in the middle of nowhere, meaning that the climbers all relocated on Friday from hotels and apartments downtown to accommodation in the various villages around the arena. We arrived to set up the livestream on the Friday and to say it was raining is barely to do it justice; it was absolutely hammering down and for a few hours the venue had a lake feature when an outdoor sports pitch flooded. Luckily the action was all taking place inside a typically clean, dry and slightly sterile Japanese arena so it didn't affect the show, but it wasn't the warmest of welcomes and I was glad of having some spare shoes with me after I got soaked carrying gear inside.

By the time we were driving to the arena on Saturday morning it was a beautiful day and we got a decent show in the qualifiers with the route difficulties being about right. Christian Bindhammer (GER) was the chief setter for the event and I usually like his work. He thinks that climbers should climb hard and doesn't generally do anything too funky; he just sets good, tough routes, which is fine by me.

On the women's side there were 5 climbers with 2 tops in qualifying, and the general impression was that the routes had been fair, and good quality. There were actually no real shock results at all - everyone who you'd expect to progress went through and the scene was set for a good semis.

The men were up in the afternoon and again, there were no huge surprises, but a few climbers will have been disappointed with how things went. Hannes Puman (SWE) missed out on semis and doesn't seem to be able to rediscover the form that took him to the World Championship final 2 months ago, and Romain Desgranges (FRA) had another poor day in what's proving to be a pretty joyless year for him. Having competed for a decade and a half with occasional success, Romain had a scarcely believable year in 2017 and won the World Cup season title. I can't help but think that as he crams himself into another economy seat for the long flight back to Europe this week he might be pondering whether he should have knocked his competition career on the head a couple of years ago. One of the big surprises in qualifying was a climber who did well - Fedir Samoilov (UKR) has real pedigree but has never looked like a dominant force until Inzai. In the qualifying round in Inzai he was the only climber with 2 tops and he basically cruised both routes.

2 Brits made it into semis - Molly Thompson-Smith and Jim Pope, and they ended up 9th and 11th respectively. The only other British entrant, Emily Phillips, was 36th in qualifiers. Team GB can justifiably consider themselves pretty unlucky after this trip to Asia because Jim was 9th in Xiamen, and Molly was then 9th in Inzai, meaning that they could easily have ended up with a finalist in both events but ended up with nobody in either. Such are the margins at this level.

I have to confess that after 5pm local time on Saturday my attention deviated from the climbing wall to the laptop so that I could watch the England rugby game. I was watching it with 3 kiwis and a Frenchman so I was expecting a tough afternoon and not getting one was utterly joyous.

Having resisted the temptation to go into Tokyo to join the English fans and their celebrations on Saturday night the next morning saw us up bright and early for semis. They turned out to be thoroughly entertaining, with both the men's and women's routes having tricky, technical starts and then physical, burly top sections. The technical sections low down actually spat off a couple of the men on the very first move, and on the women's route several fell after only 10 moves.

Personally I'm fine with climbers falling low down because the routes should be hard from the outset but having people fall on the very first move is perhaps taking that theory a little too far - maybe just give them 3 or 4 easy-ish moves to at least get a quickdraw clipped.

With several of the top climbers missing from Inzai, the fields were quite open and so I didn't really feel there were any huge shocks in semis, save perhaps for Fedir Samoilov failing to convert his epic qualifying performance into a spot in the finals. On the men's side the only top came from Alberto Ginés López (ESP) who is fast becoming one the of the most popular climbers thanks to his battling attitude. He's firmly in the "won't die wondering" category and Campbell Harrison (AUS) hit the nail on the head in commentary when he described Alberto's climbing style as "basically refusing to let go".

On the women's side, a seemingly rejuvenated Janja Garnbret (SLO) was the standout climber in the semis and got by far the closest anyone managed to a top. Having written last week about Janja being in a bit of a funk, I finally had a proper chat with her in Inzai, and she's basically ready for a break. Most climbers pick and choose which World Cups they do but Janja goes to everything and I think she's just burnt out. She was supposed to be going on from Inzai to the China Open in Guangzhou but she's changed her flight and is heading back to Europe early this week to do some outdoor climbing somewhere sunny. I wonder if changing those flights and shifting her mindset to Inzai being her last competition of the year relaxed her a bit, because she looked back to her old self in semis and later told me the route had been her favourite of the whole season.

After 2 pretty ropey finals in Xiamen a week ago everyone was willing Inzai to be a good show and fortunately it delivered. The routes were not dissimilar from the ones in semis in that they were technical low down, burly up top, and I thought both worked really well.

The women climbed first and provided a cracking final, with the high point getting pushed further and further by successive climbers. Jain Kim (KOR) found the first top of the night with a typically graceful performance and that left Janja, the last climber out, under real pressure. Janja admitted afterwards that she was feeling that pressure and her attempt on the route started to unravel in the final third when she did a few sequences wrong and burned some much needed energy, which then cost her the top. She's so strong that she doesn't necessarily fall off when she makes a mistake, but in Inzai her failure to do the moves "correctly" took a lot out of her and she fell a few moves short of the final hold.

The win in Inzai was Jain's 30th and she's the first climber in history to achieve that many victories. She's been around an awfully long time but just keeps going and is remarkably consistent. Her lovely, smooth climbing style looks like it's taking minimal effort but that just shows how strong she is - if you can make desperate moves look easy then you really are a beast. Even before Inzai she held the all time record for most World Cup wins and just when it looked like she might get that record taken off her sometime soon, she's pushed it that bit further away from her competitors. Jain is seemingly devoid of ego or pretence - she's likeable, friendly and very low key, all which makes her an understandably popular climber. I've no idea what her plans are beyond next season, but we should enjoy Jain while she's still competing because she is truly one of the greats, and a lovely person to boot. We filmed an interview with her on the qualifying day and I was struck once again by how easy she is to deal with and how giving she is of her time. That's not unusual in climbing but there are still one or two IFSC athletes who could do with taking a leaf out of her book.

Jain compatriot Chaehyun Seo (KOR) looked ever so slightly burned out after a long season for someone who is still not even 16, but she still managed 3rd. In the 6 World Cups she's ever entered, her bronze medal in Inzai is her worst ever result. Her performance this season still seems hard to believe and I'm fascinated to see whether she can do the same again next year now that she's one of the favourites.

Over on the men's side quite a few of the regular contenders hadn't made the trip to Japan and the door was open for someone to walk through and claim the win. For some reason I never really thought it would be Stefano Ghisolfi (ITA), who picked up the bronze but still looks short of where he needs to be. I'm not sure why Stefano - after 2 successive seasons as the season runner up - suddenly doesn't look quite right on the Lead wall but whatever the problem is, he still doesn't seem that close to adding to his 5 World Cup wins. Still, with the Olympic Selection Event in Toulouse beckoning a month from now, getting back on the podium will likely give him some much needed confidence.

In second was the aforementioned Alberto Ginés López, who couldn't repeat his heroics from the semi final, but did enough for yet another World Cup medal in what's proving to be a real breakthrough season for him. That first win really can't be far away and he must be wishing that the season was carrying on for a few more events such is his form right now.

Out ahead of everyone else by quite some margin in the final was Hiroto Shimizu (JPN), who's only been in 3 finals but has collected a silver (and now) a gold medal from them. He's quite unusual amongst the Japanese climbers in that he specialises in Lead, but given his performance in Inzai maybe the team should consider having a few more specialists. Hiroto is a really fun guy and I think plenty of neutrals were pleased to see him pick up the win.

For me the event felt very smooth and easy because I had excellent company in the commentary box throughout. Campbell Harrison is one of the most relaxed but polished "amateur" broadcasters I've had in the booth, and his ability to provide genuine insight at just the right time and in the right manner is impressive. He'd definitely have a future in broadcasting if he wanted one, and having him alongside me always feels like an easy "win". Joining me for the women's final I had Mei Kotake (JPN) and I thought she was exceptional. I've seen quite a few comments about the fact that we don't hear enough from the Japanese athletes so I've been wanting to get her to commentate for a while. Not many of the Japanese team speak a great deal of English but having spent 10 months in Florida a few years ago, Mei probably has the best language skills of them all. I made an effort to speak a little slower and more clearly than usual (which hopefully didn't sound too strange for people at home) and it was an effort worth making to get a bit of an insight into the Japanese climbing mindset.

In the overall standings, Chaehyun Seo took home the trophy after sealing victory in Xiamen last week. Janja Garnbret placed 2nd despite a difficult season and young Natsuki Tanii (JPN) finished 3rd in her first senior year. In the men's rankings, Adam Ondra was the season's best despite having only competed in three events after winning all three of them. Alberto Ginés López took a well-earned 2nd and Sean McColl (CAN) 3rd.

So, the World Cup season is done but there is still the small matter of the Olympic Selection Event in Toulouse a month from now. For many climbers it will be their last shot at the Olympics and I suspect it will be an emotional event all round. For now though, it's time for a well earned break and a chance to digest what has been a quite breathtaking World Cup season.

To get a rough idea of who might be competing for an Olympic ticket in Toulouse, check the Combined Rankings below. The top 20 athletes will be invited, minus those who already have an Olympic quota place.

Women's Combined Rankings

Men's Combined Rankings

IFSC Climbing Worldcup (L) - Inzai (JPN) 2019