Registration has closed for the lead-climbing World Cup this weekend in Boulder, Colorado.

Both Sasha DiGiulian, who is from the Washington, D.C., area, and Vancouver's Sean McColl made the finals at last weekend's World Cup in Puurs, Belgium, further brightening their solid prospects.

But not on the list is Jain Kim of Seoul, winner of the Belgium event, and the 2010 overall World Cup winner, at the top of her abilities at the moment.

Last week she confirmed to Rock and Ice that she would be attending the Boulder event.

The website 8a.nu reported early this week that she would not: "Jain Kim ... has made a FB comment in regards to not been able to compete in the USA WC the next weekend, 'Korean Alpine Federation and Sport Climbing Committee, are you happy now that I'm not going to the USA Worldcup? You're not even a bit sorry to me. You'd rather think you're able to control athletes your own way. Happy now?'"

As observed by 8a.nu, when Dmitry Sharafutdinov (RUS) could not make it to Canada last summer for a Bouldering World Cup, "[I]f he had been #2 he had won the overall title from Kilian Fischhuber."

Keith Ferguson of USA Climbing, the host entity for the WC,  had received word from Kim through Facebook last week that she would appear in Boulder, but then found a cancellation from her on Sunday. She gave no reason: "I do not know what happened," he said.

Tuesday (October 4) Giada La Marca of the International Federation of Sport Climbing emailed us an explanation: "We found out from the Jain Kim’s management that Jain Kim had the best intentions to compete in the IFSC WC in Boulder, however on the same weekend there is an important national event in Korea. Korean Alpine Federation and Sport Climbing Committee have preferred to rather retain the Korean athletes to compete in the national event."

Winning his fifth straight event in Belgium was a dominating Jakob Schubert (AUST), with Sachi Amma (JPN) second and Ramon Julian Puigblanque (SPA) third.  Fourth was Manuel Romain (FRA) and fifth Magnus Midtboe (NOR), who is well-known to American climbers, having climbed and competed well and extensively here. Second for women in Belgium was Angela Eiter, with Mina Markovic (SLO) third, followed by Magdalina Rock (AUT) and Akiyo Noguchi (JPN). All are expected in Boulder.

See complete Boulder WC contestants on the registration list here. The event is overseen by the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC).

Among the 67 athletes registered, American women are Sasha DiGiulian,  Alex Johnson, Paige Claassen, Tiffany Hensley, Chelsea Rude, Emily Harrington, Delaney Miller, Michaela Kiersch, Aly Dorey, Audrey Sniezek, Amelia Metcalf and Amanda Sutton. For men, the list is Carlo Traversi, Matty Hong, Alex "Socks" Johnson, Jon Cardwell, Shane Puccio, Ryan Sewell, Josh Levin, Ben Spannuth, Ben Hoberg, Kevin Macartney, Graham Owen and Ian Dory.  Canadian contestants are Allannah Yip, Maegan Kelleway and Alison Stewart-Patterson; and McColl, Mike Doyle and Elan Jonas McCrae.

The WC will take place at Movement Climbing and Fitness Center.

For ticket information, see USA Climbing.

For our previous Boulder World Cup preview, click here.

(Above: The Canadian climber Sean McColl, 24, makes the finals at the latest lead-climbing World Cup, in Puurs, Belgium. The first lead (roped climbing versus bouldering) World Cup comp since Berkeley in 1991 will take place this weekend in Boulder. The 18-year-old American Sasha DiGiulian made women's finals in Puurs, and is also in Boulder. Photo by Heiko Wilhelm.)