Arief Nagara has done Mark's Traverse (8A) in Mortar Rock and Midtown Brown 8A (+) in Delete. Amazingly, the 12-year-old has now done 78 boulders 7B+ and harder including three flashes. The picture by his father Innosanto, is from Action Jackson 7C+ which he has not yet done.

How much do you take part in your son's climbing?
I mostly am just lucky in that I have a very flexible schedule, and I know climbing so I can take him wherever he wants to go. I was never much of a boulderer and I'm from the era before crash pads, so nowadays my role in that is mainly helping carry pads, spotting, and videotaping. For sport climbing, I'm more useful because I can assess any cleaning issues if he has to bail on a lead, etc. But really he is very self-motivated about climbing. He has had some really great coaches and mentors. As I said, I quit climbing 25 years ago. My sport is martial arts, and I'm an instructor at a dojo here in Oakland. But he discovered climbing himself. The fact that I could support him in it definitely helped of course, but he's mostly motivated by his team and coaches. I think the climbing community has been great too--after some initial presumptions by some people, most climbers are willing to take him seriously as a fellow climber.

If anything I try to step back as much as I can because dad as a coach or someone trying to relive my youth vicariously through his accomplishments is a mistake.

Before this year I didn't allow him to post grades with his sends, but with that much experience I feel he now has a strong sense of what climbing grades mean in relation to his sense of self as a person and as a climber, so it's okay to have fun with that. His base is pretty strong, with almost 80 sends V8 (7B+) or above. Some are of course going to be disputed. Some are "soft". Some are hard.

Arief comments on his send of Midtown brown: "I first tried it three weeks ago and over two sessions got some really good links. But it still felt impossible because even though I could do all the individual moves I could only do the crux in isolation once every five times or so. And I couldn’t do the crux when I started from the start. Plus the second part is hard. But then I went back this week I was able to repeat the finish pretty easily and did the crux in iso on my first try so I was feeling really strong. I started trying send goes and taking long rests in between, which is unusual for me. But it worked because I ended up having enough energy to send even though it was at the end of a five-hour session"

Adam Ondra, Jakob Schubert and Stefano Ghisolfi report on Instagram that they are in Flatanger in Norway at the same time, the following two weekends, there are Lead World Cups in Koper in Slovenia and Edinburgh in the UK. Other big names that will miss at least one of the WC events are, Sean Bailay, Alex Megos, Will Bosi, Colin Duffy and Tomoa Narasaki. Some of the athletes have explained that the reason for this is that there will be two intensive years coming up starting with the Olympic qualifications in 2023.

The qualification in Koper starts at 9.00 on Friday and then the semifinal at 20.00 will be live-streamed at Discovery +. The men's final starts at 20.00 on Saturday and is followed by the women's final.

Japan dominated the Youth World Championship in Dallas as they have done for several years in a row. In total, they got 3 golds, 7 silvers, and 4 bronzes. The runner-ups in the medal table were France with 2 golds and 2 silvers, and the USA with 2 golds and 1 bronze. Countries with relatively poor results were Germany with just three Top-8 positions, Austria with 2 and Spain with 1. Germany and Spain have had relatively poor results among youngsters for several years but for Austria, it was possibly the worst result ever in a YWCH. It should be mentioned that Oriane Bertone from France, Chaehyun Seo from Korea, and Ryo Nakagawa from Japan did not participate as their focus is the upcoming World Cups.

The best individual results got Sara Copar from Slovenia and Zento Murashita from Japan with one gold and one silver.

Here are old articles, Japan success story explained and Team spirit and playfullness keys for Japan domination.

On the last day of the Youth World Championship in Dallas, Japan continued to dominate with four medals. In the boys U-18, they had four in the Top-5 with Soratu Anraku winning ahead of Toby Roberts from the UK. "I am so happy to have won. It was a difficult and powerful route. I only liked that type of route a little bit, but obviously, now I like it a lot." Complete results

In the youngest boys category, U-16, Max Bertone, from France and sibling with Oriane, won being the only one topping the final route, as he also did in the semi. "I feel really proud because I found it really hard in the semis because I didn’t feel ready to compete.

I knew I had done something good because when I did the last hold the whole crowd screamed so loud, and I thought I was in with a good shot at being the world champion. So, when I did that final move, I screamed at myself because it was such a release of pressure." Riki Isibara from Japan was runner-up. Complete results

In the girls' U-16, Chaeyeong Kim from Korea won ahead of Meije Lerondel from France. "I’m really proud that I didn’t really make any mistakes today. And I’m relieved that because of that I got to finish in a good position and to win the title." Complete results. IFSC has the full report with more quotes and pictures.

Alex Totkova from Bulgaria won Girls U-18 in the Youth World Championship in Dallas ahead of Sara Copar from Slovenia on countback as both topped the final route. "I feel amazing. I could hear the crowd and I knew Sara [Copar} topped the route so I was a little bit nervous because I knew I had to top to win, but now I feel really good. Knowing you have to top adds pressure, but I’m happy I dealt with it and did what I had to do." Complete results

In the U-20, Japan got the gold and the silver for both the boys and the girls. Interestingly, only one of the 8 + 8 finalists are from western Europe. Among the girls, Nonoha Kume won ahead of Natsuki Tanii which was quite a surprise, although Kume won also last year. Tanii has been Top-9 in all the 12 World Cups she has attended since 2019 meanwhile, Kume has not yet participated in a World Cup. "At the beginning of the route I felt quite uncomfortable. There was a hard move, but when I got passed that I knew I was in with a good shot of a win. I’m very happy."

From the complete results we can see that five of the girl finalists are from eastern Europe.

Among the oldest boys, Japan had three in the Top-4 with, Zento Murashita and Junta Sekiguchi getting the gold and silver. In Boulder, they were #2 and #3. Lovro Crep, who won the semifinal, from Slovenia got the bronze. complete results and here is the IFSC report.

Mike Doyle, who has previously done two 8c+ routes, has sent Honour and Glory (9a) in Echo Canyon, giving it a personal 8c+ grade. "What a fight to the finish! I'm really stoked to have managed to take it to the top the first time hitting the big flake! An endurance monster and masterpiece. Found really good beta (double kneepads) through the bottom. IMO 8c to the flake then 8a+/8b to the summit. That can take it up a grade but there's probably still better beta to be found. Lots of options and I really loved that about this route." The picture is from his Insta

Mike did his first 8c+, by the FA of the classical Lucifer (8c+) in Red River Gorge (KY) back in 2007.

Thomas Joannes, who previously has done five 8c+, has done Cabane au Canada (9a) in Rawyl, giving it a personal 8c+ grade as it only took him three tries. Adam Ondra onsighted it in 2013 and last year he updated his scorecard by calling it 8c+. Thomas comments, "Pure line, 100% competition climbing style. 🙂 Soft 8c+ in my opinion."

The 27-year-old has been an active competition climber until 2018. Seven times he has made the final in a Lead World Cup including once being #3.