Alexander Rohr has recorded his fifth 9a, The Illusionist" in Flatanger. (c) Jon Solberg Høyland "I think i always had the level to do it. But it was very hard test mentally. Sometimes I could not climb on the route for more than a week because it was wet. Now I finally was lucky. It‘s a route from Adam. It is very good and very hard so I never wanted to bail. I basically never bail, and it was one of the routes I always wanted to do. A real hard route and not a random 9a somewhere from someone and no one knows if it is really is hard. I went to Flatanger last year to do it. Well, it was either raining heavily or super hot. I was close and had to leave empty handed. This July I came back, and again, it was more than 30 degrees and the route was wet on most of the days. So I had the plan B to come back in late August, and here I am."

1. Tomoa Narasaki 2 - 1 = 2 2. Rishat Khabullin 1 - 8 = 8 3. Meichi Narasaki 5 - 2 = 10 4. Mickael Mawem 4 - 4 = 16 5. Kokoro Fujii 6 - 3 = 18 5. Kai Harada 3 - 6 = 18 7. Jakob Schubert 7 - 5 = 35 8. Alex Megos 8 - 7 = 56 (injured) Complete results As Alex Megos got a finger injury on the first boulder, it is expected that Jakob Schubert will win in Lead. If so in practice Tomoa Narasaki has secured the gold after his super impressive boulder round doing all three problems in just four tries. His younger brother Meichi was #2 in boulder win one top and three zones and could in theory win overall. If Kai Harada is second in Lead, he will probably be #2 overall as long as Meichi is fourth or worse. Actually as it stands, Rishat Khaibullin has a chance to get the bronze overall although being dead last but ahead of Megos not participating.

Tomoa Narasaki was superior becoming second in Speed, first in Boulder and second in Lead, getting just points. Jakob Schubert was the only one to Top in the Lead and got 35 points overall. The big sensation was that Rishat Khaibullin got the bronze after having won Speed and put on a great fight skipping two clips which just made him fifth in Lead. (An interview is coming up and actually he deos not consider him as a Speed specialist.) It should also be mentioned that he was super lucky in the two most critical Speed events. First he won against big favorite Bassa Mawem due to a fall and later he benefitted from a technical incident. In the re-run he set a personal best beating the world champion Fossali with 0.03 seconds. Fourth was Kai Harada, putting on a spectacular show in bouldering but at the same time a bit unlucky as he touched two Tops but could not stick it. (c) Vladek Zumr Complete results 1. Tomoa Narasaki 2. Jakob Schubert 3. Rishat Khaibullin 4. Kai Harada 5. Meichi Narasaki 6. Kokoro Fujii 7. Mickael Mawem 8. Alex Megos (injured)

Pete Whittaker has done the second repeat of Nicolas Favresse's Recovery drink 8c+ in Jössingfjord, Norway after some 25 sessions. He started working on the big overhanging crack in 2015 and did it on his fourth trip. "I think it's generally considered to be 8c+, which seems to sit in line with all the other 5.14 trad routes I've done." Full story on Pete's Facebook. "Miraculously I found myself mid crux with some power in the tank. Not much, but some, and albeit feeling the sag, some is always enough for something extra to happen. Left heal went on for the match and it didn’t come off, which was a surprise, because I was milking it much more than the hold really allowed. I realised I better carry on, so shut my eyes to try harder and fondled for the jam doughnut. I then realised I couldn’t see a bloody thing, so opened them again, found I was still connected to the wall, flipped my hand the ‘correct way’ and unbelievably found myself established beyond the crux. Blimey!" What is next? I have the launch of my book 'Crack Climbing' this winter, so very focused on that. I also heard 'Silence' has a foot jam on it, so I might go and see if I can hang the move.

Complete results

Big drama with the Ondra bolt incident in the end that including the multiplication format, as well as four Japanese into the final, just made it almost too much. Further more the commentators keep saying that Japan will select two to Tokyo which they can not know. In the end, it was Sean McColl who had a very poor round in both Speed and Boulder, who was the biggest lucky winner of an Olympic ticket. Sean started of with a Z-clip but kept on fighting and looked not so pleased falling being #3. Then every result of the remaining climbers did go exactly as they should. (c) Vladek Zumr Very lucky indeed was indeed also Ludovico Fossali, who although being dead last in both Lead and Boulder he got himself a ticket to Tokyo. 1. Alex Megos 17 - 1 - 1 = 17 2. Jakob Schubert 15 - 2 - 2 = 60 3. Tomoa Narasaki 4 - 4 - 7 = 112 4. Kokoro Fujii 5 - 7 - 5 = 175 5. Kai Harada 6 - 3 -13 = 234 6. Rishar Khaibullin 1 - 17 - 16 = 272 7. Meichi Narasaki 8 - 5 - 10 = 400 8. Mickael Mawem 83 - 8 - 18 = 432 Also getting an Olympic ticket 9. Ludovico Fossali 2 - 20 - 20 = 800 10. Sean McColl 18 - 15 - 3 = 810 Complete results