The best bouldering athletes from around the world gathered in Meiringen, Switzerland last weekend for the first round of the 2016 Bouldering World Cup season. Leah Crane, Team GB member and semi-finalist, brings us the report from the day.

MEIRINGEN!

What a brilliant way to start the season. Nestled in the centre of Switzerland, the Bernese Oberland, surrounded by mountains, the season was kicked off.

As always with competitions, we didn’t fully know what to expect from the setters and coming out to the qualifiers, I would say that the women's blocs felt too easy, which is weird. Maybe they were, or maybe the months and months of training really did pay off. Either way, I finished fourth in my group and I was super happy with how I climbed. Michaela Tracy finished in the place above me and definitely showed through her passion that she was psyched on her performance.

As usual, Shauna breezed through qualification in the other group of competitors and the three of us were super excited to progress to semi-finals together; even better that we could share isolation with fellow Team GB members Ty Landman and Dave Barrans. Dave was the only guy to top the Men's B1 bloc and it was cool to watch Ty cruise bloc four, topping three altogether.

Billy, Tara and Nathan all put up a good fight but not quite enough to make it to semis.

WATCH: Leah Crane crushing in the qualifiers

Semi-finals

Coming out into semi-finals, I felt psyched and ready to climb. I have to say though, in stark contrast to qualifiers, the blocs were HARD. There were very few tops across the whole field with only one person topping all four. Shauna kept her cool and climbed confidently, managing to top her final two blocs, earning her another spot in the finals, and well deserved it was too.

In the men's field, Tyler absolutely crushed and qualified in a definitive first place, putting his grit skills to good use on a very techy slab to help see him through to the finals.

The final

After watching all the performances of the final, I can say with confidence that Shauna was without doubt the strongest female. Tyler put up a good fight but there were three blocs of weird, bizarre movement style that proved tricky and an easier slab run. Alexey Rubtsov took first place with only two tops. Ty got one top and finished in 6th place.

I asked Shauna what she thought: "I felt really ready to climb before the final and I was looking forward to trying hard. The first comp of the season is always an interesting one, it's impossible to know how you'll be climbing compared to the other competitors. Safe to say I'm pretty pleased. I can't thank everyone enough for all of the support!"

Now we're off to Japan for the next one!

Women's results:

1. Shauna Coxsey (GBR)
2. Melissa Le Neve (FRA)
3. Megan Mascarenas (USA)
4. Akiyo Noguchi (JPN)
5. Janja Garnbret (SLO)
6. Clementine Kaiser (FRA)

Men's results:

1. Alexey Rubtsov (RUS)
2. Martin Stranik (CZE)
3. Jorg Verhoeven (NED)
4. Alban Levier (FRA)
5. Jakob Schubert (AUT)
6. Tyler Landman (GBR)

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