Schubert winner of a great Combined World Championship
The male Combined final begun with the big favorite in Speed, Tomoa Narasaki making a false start in the very first race against Jakob Schubert. In the end, Jan Hojer took a controlled victory of Jakob Scubert. Bouldering got a spectacular start when Narasaki skipped the first zone and instead made a huge diagonal dyno. Later also Schubert and Ondra skipped holds but the record was set by Hojer skipping three holds on Boulder three. Unfortunately everyone flashed the last boulder but apart from that the difficulty level was OK. Starting last out in Lead was Schubert and once he passed Hojer's score he had secured the gold and the commentators were looking for a Hollywood ending with the Innsbruk son becoming the first to top out. Instead Ondra got his revenge winning by five moves over the Austrain securing his Combined silver. Overall it was an over three hours packed intense show which the athletes seemed to like. Happy faces all over with the athletes cooperating as usual in every discipline. The race for the Olympic medals that will be handed out in 23 months. (c) Vladek Zumr

Crag & route pages updated
Weโ€™ve updated the layout of the crag and route pages. The new page structure lays the foundation for bringing Topos to Vertical-Life Web. Alongside the new layโ€ฆ
Nearly 2,000 hectares of Font Forest destroyed by wildfire
Exceptional wildfires are currently sweeping through parts of France's Fontainebleau Forest. Located around 70 km south-east of Paris, the UNESCO Biosphere Reseโ€ฆ
New Base Line, second 8B+ by Mile Heyden
Mile Heyden has done her second 8B+, New Base Line in Magic Wood. (c) Matti Stanik "Falling 3 times at the final jug of this incredibly breathtaking line was one of the most frustrating thing I've ever experienced in bouldering but persistence paid off :) Topping it out with some wet holds was a combination of felicity and heart attack! This line is really one of the most beautiful lines and I'm just super happy, thankful and satisfied to finish this one! More comments and pictures on her Insta.

4 Tops by just the Top-6 in the semifinal but not Ondra, Kruder or Narasaki
In contrast to the previous setting in the Boulder Championship, we did see many Tops but just the Top-6 topped all four boulders. Adam Ondra did only make two and was down at #17 place. The finalists are: Kokoro Fujii, Jongwon Chon, Gregor Vezonik, Kai Harada, Keita Watabe and Nathan Philips. Complete results (c) Vladek Zumr It was super dramatic in the very end when Jernej Kruder could not get a top although getting one hand on the top. In fact, 15 out of 19 did it out of which first go. Nathan Philips is the big sensation and he more or less did all the three last boulders with just seconds left on the clock. Twice he actually crimped a screw hold to move upwards. He has been competing actively in the World Cup for four years and his best ever result is #16.

Kai Harada excels in great spectacular show
Kai Harada, who was #3 in the Youth World Championship last month, showed to the best both on the tricky slab as well as the powerful and technical cordination boulders. It was a touching moment when he fell on his knee after he flashed the last boulder and once he looked up on the cheering crowd, we could all see him crying and then covering and wiping his eyes with the T-shirt. Runner-ups, and equally happy, was the crowd pleasers Jongwon Chon and Gregor Vezonik. It seems there are no rivalry among the best, instead they are all a big happy family and that includes also the coaches. 1. Kai Harada JPN 44 - Also qually Combined winner 2. Jongwon Chon KOR 34 9:10 3. Gregor Vezonik SLO 34 9:17 4. Keita Watabe JPN 24 5. Kokoro Fujii JPN 22 6. Nathan Philips GBR 12 Complete results (c) Vladek Zumr

Nonaka just barely made it to the final
The Female Boulder Semifinal started with another standing on a banner sign situation but luckily it did not happen for any of the 19 to come. Instead, the semi will be remembered by the Japanese favorites saving their show on the last boulder. Miho Nonaka had failed eight times to do the first move, (c) Vladek Zumr, and with 40 seconds left she asked for support from the crowd and then she executed and actually skipped the second last hold and did go double dyno to the Top. On the first boulder, Miho squeezed in a crucial zone on her fifteenth attempt. Akiyo Noguchi had also failed to do boulder #1 and put on her ice face and did the last boulder on her second go. Noteworthy is that on boulder #3, we did only see one zone carried out by Alex Puccio. Further more, Miho Nonaka will start first in the final taking the advantages of lower pressure and fresher holds. Out of the last ten World Championships, 50 % of the golds have been taken by the #6 in the semi. Her biggest opponents is Janja Garnbret who won the semi by three flashes. Stasa Gejo is currently #7 in Combined but if she takes the silver in the final, she will kick out Sol Sa from the Combined final. If Miho would have failed to do the last boulder she could have missed the Combined final. Complete results