Niky Ceria reports on Insta that he has done Jimmy Webb's La Rustica 8C in Valle Bavona. In total, the 27-year-old Italian, who is somewhat under the radar as he never gives his FAs a grade, needed seven sessions to take the masterpiece down. (c) Selfie

"One of the nicest Ticino's additions of the past decade. Something I have always dreamt to try, but somehow I have never come back to this place from 2014 until last March. During this fall trip my hand was more flexible and I could feel different body positions on the super technical third move.

It rarely happens to be attracted and feel deeply connected to something that has already been developed like in this case. At least to me. Certainly not because the boulders I found are better, but different because the whole process includes many enjoyable moments which make the entire experience a different thing. La Rustica is the proper example of the exception."

Eliska Adamovska was the last female out as she won the qualification. If she tops out and is faster than Viktoriia Meshkova, Stasa Gejo will get the ticket to Tokyo. The clock is ticking but all the way from the start she is not as fast but even when Eliska tops out one minute slower, nobody knows who made it Tokyo (besides the guys keeping track of the time). After some 40 seconds, the Russian coaches start to scream and the camera shows Meshkova starting to understand what happened. (c) Nikita Tsarev

Previous in the week, she won Gold both in Lead and Speed. Based on her previous World Cup results, this must be the biggest sensation ever in competition climber. Last year she did eleven Boulder and Lead WCs and the 20-year-old's best results were #16.

Dmitry Sharafutdinov, the Russian training coach who has won three World Championships and who is famous for mainly done pull-ups as his training regime, says that probably hard physical training 20+ hours a week in her apartment during the two months lockdown is the best explanation.

"The secret of her success is probably the spring lockdown. Everyone was at home. Communication only online. I wrote a training program. At home, Vika performed an enormous amount of physical training. Like me in my best years. 5 times a week, for 4-5 hours. (But the exercises are a secret.) Fingerboard was done regularly. But that was not the main one. Rather, the emphasis was on training large muscles. We used a little bit of everything. But no matter how strange it may sound, I took a lot from figure skating and alpine skiing. Not much with weights, mostly with her own weight.

A month ago, a test for coronavirus gave a positive result and she isolated herself. The disease was mild. She was under the supervision of a doctor of the Russian national command team. As soon as the symptoms went away she began training. Online first, and after negative tests five times at the climbing gym. It's hard for me to say now what played a decisive role. Perhaps rested."

1. Viktoria Meshkova RUS 2 - 6 - 1 = 12
2. Stasa Gejo SER 3 - 1 - 5 = 15
3. Eliska Adamovska CZE 8 - 4 - 2 = 64
4. Patrycja Chudziak POL 1 - 8 - 8 = 64
5. Chloe Caulier BEL 5 - 2 - 7 = 70
6. Elena Krasovskaia RUS 4 - 3 - 6 = 72
7. Hannah Meul GER 6 - 5 - 4 = 120
8. Molly Smith-Thompson GBR 7 - 7 - 3 = 147

It should be noted that the Speed specialist actually was very close to having gotten the bronze.

Aleksei Rubtsov, Boulder World Champion in 2009, got the ticket to Moscow after a Leadspeed drama that will go to the record books. First out is William Bosi who touches the final jug and then Sergei Luzhetski tops with 3.09 left on the clock. Rubtsov is third last out but as his best ever Lead WC result is #15 and that he was #16 in the Lead qualification, realistically he is fighting for the bronze overall even if he was #5 in Speed and #1 in Boulder. The Russian sets out in Lead Speed mode and does the Lead climb of his lifetime touching the final jug much faster than Bosi.

Next out is the big favourite Sasha Lehmann who needs to top out faster than Sergei in order to get the ticket. After beating the Russian with some 20 seconds the commentator says he thinks this is enough and Sasha's name is on top of the provisional results. Then Yuval Shelma starts running up the route and as he tops out even faster, Rubtsov is the lucky man going to Tokyo and Sasha need to wait until Paris 2024.

Congratulation the Olympian he responds in a text message. "Amazing moment, no words... Yuval is my hero." (c) Nikita Tsarev

1. Aleksei Rubtsov RUS 5 - 1 - 4 (2.42) = 20
2. Sascha Lehmann SUI 4 - 3 - 2 (2.31) = 24
3. Sergei Luzhetski RUS 2 - 5 - 3 (2.51) = 30
4. Nikolai Iarilovets RUS 3 - 2 - 6 = 36
5. Yuval Shelma ISR 8 - 6 - 1 (2.20) = 48
6. Marcin Dzienski POL 1 - 8 - 8 = 64
7. Alex Khazanov ISR 7 - 4 - 7 = 196
8. William Bosi GBR 6 - 7 - 5 (3.20) = 210

The 32-year-old had no sponsors until 2015, besides free shoes from La Sportiva. In his 8a scorecard he has logged a dozen 8B+ and harder and two 9a's out of which one from this summer. Here are some interesting comments from Rubtsov published in Innsbruck 2018

"The brain is the most important part in climbing. Maybe not in speed (laughs), but in bouldering for sure. In Europe, every coach thinks that he's the smartest one and his system is the best. They are authoritarian. But they should understand that they know nothing and start their education from zero. I can't tell you what I do, because that is my secret. Laughs. You need to widen your repertoire to improve, not focusing on small things, but on the big picture... It is better for me to be alone. You could maybe remove the bonus, even. You can do the boulder, or you can't. Bouldering is good. One bonus, two bonuses, ten bonuses, ... what is that? It's not Bouldering."

Alexander Rohr has done his ninth 9a by the FA of The Back Of Beyond 9a in Soyhières. (c) Hannes Kutza

"Extension to Jusqu‘au bout du monde. Hard boulder after the first pitch and really resistant. Finally, the original line is born and the Jura got his first 9a. I tried it some days in the beginning of November, but the conditions were still too warm. I went there again last week for three sessions and had a breakthrough on Thursday. Then the conditions on the weekend were bad again but I finally sent on Tuesday on my third try of the day.

The key in this route is doing the lower pitch which is 8c without getting tired and having dry but not too cold conditions. It was a bit weird, as the conditions changed quite a lot and it became hard to predict what‘s going to happen. But in the end, I just kept in trying and got rewarded.

David Kompatscher has done his first 8C, Zunami in Saalachtal. Actually, until 2020, his hardest boulder during the last two years was doing a couple 8A's. Uncut video.

"I already got close to sending the boulder three years ago, but then a knee injury stopped me from trying it because there is an essential hook, which is really demanding for the knee. Some weeks ago I gave it a try again - the knee felt good and I got really close. All in all, I invested around 25 to 30 days on projecting the boulder."

Seb Bouin reports on Insta that he has done the first repeat of De l’autre Côté du Ciel (The Other Side of the Sky) 9a in Les Eaux Claires, which Fred Rouhling put up in 1997. "It’s a huge roof really esthetic, it looks likes someone cut it with a knife. The moves are really big and impressive. There are some twist and 360° on the roof on good holds. Almost 100% chipped, but so fun to climb." (c) Julien Nadiras

Seb, who previously has done some 65 routes 9a and harder, has the last month repeated Rouhlings Hugh 9a from 1993 and the first repeat of Akira 9a (b) from 1995. Seb has commented to 8a, "Fred was ahead of his time and part of the reason for my Vintage trip was to salute him. The difficulty of those routes is amazing! At the same time, I can just say all three routes felt 9a."