On the first day of the Lead qualification in the Youth World Championship in Dallas, Japan dominated as they also did last year. In the oldest girls category, Natsuki Tanii was the only one to top out both routes. Runner-up on both routes was Nonoha Kume also from Japan. Results Girls U-20.

Among the oldest boys, Zento Murashita was #1, followed by Connor Herson from the USA and Junta Sekiguchi. Interestingly, Japan had four in the Top-8 and USA three. Results Boys U-20.

In the Girls U-18, Alex Totkova from Bulgaria won ahead of Sara Copar from Slovenia who got the gold in Boulder. Results Gilrs U-18

Jane Švecová (Vincourkova), who did her first 8B+ this spring, has made the FA of Margo (8B) in Moravský kras, video.

"I was originally trying Janja SD (8B+) from Martin Stráník. Unfortunately, I couldn't reach most of the holds and the major parts of the moves were impossible for me. While my husband kept trying Janja I decided to entertain myself and kept trying it, I found a completely different way for the crux. The first three to four moves are the same, but then I continued with the moves further up in the roof, so I decided to make a new boulder from it. I've been struggling with one, I would say, the crux move, but then Lucie Hrozová visited me and she came out with a very different beta which suited me even better. Then there was a really hard foot exchange which took me most of the time, to do it.

It is crazy to say but even in the summer, there could be close to five-degree celsius by the boulder, so for many days, I was struggled with cold, or with a wet rock because of the moisture coming from the cave below the boulder. On day eight or so I finally saw some progress. Then the weather was really poor and I had a lot of work, so I was just hang boarding a lot. After a month I got time to get back, and we came to the crag, I warmed up in some easy boulders and sent the project first go. I didn't expect it, everything was just perfect, I just kept going and all of the sudden, I was at the top. So yeah, it was very fast send that day, I decided calling it Margo as it is as well an iconic climber as Janja and the style of this climb is similar to what you can see from Margo, for-example in LaRambla 🙂"

Yannick Flohé, who has been Top-7 in all eight WC's he has done in 2022, has been on a quick trip to Magic Wood where he did four 8B+ boulder problems. In the 8a ranking game he is #4 and that is also his position in the IFSC Lead and Boulder rankings 2022.

"It was my first time in Magic and I really enjoyed it. The first three days started with rain so I checked out Ill Thrill (8B+) and did The Never Ending Story (8B+) and Power of Now (8B+) which stay dry except for the last hold. Power of Now only took a couple of tries but Ill trill felt hard for me because it’s so technical with lots of heel hooks. On my last day, I made a quick ascent of Believe in two (8B+). It’s a rarely repeated 8B+ that shares the same start as Steppenwolf. I also tried In search of time loss in the Darkness cave but It was too hot to try hard. But luckily I’ll come back straight after the Koper WC in two weeks 😄."

Camilla Moroni, who recently was #9 in both Lead and Boulder in the Euro Championship, has done four 8As while on a three day trip to Silvretta.

"After the European Championship in Munich I went three days in Silvretta for a little break before my last international competition of the year, the Lead WC in Koper. Since my trip lasted only three days I decided not to try too hard boulders and to enjoy the new place. It was really good climbing some beautiful lines at 2000 metres surrounded by mountains. During this little break, I managed to send Diamond Nuts (8A), Pretty Belinda (8A), Shining (8A) and . I climbed the last two boulders on the same day but I had already tried them on the first day. In the next month probably I will come back to Magic Wood to send some old projects of the last year. And this winter I'd like to send some hard boulders in Ticino like Heritage (8B+)."

Lilli Kiesgen has done Sofa Surfer 8A (+) in Magic Wood. "Our trip was only eight days long and we had two rainy days. On this trip, I was motivated to try hard stuff for the first time. I checked out many different boulders. On Sofa Surfer the single moves felt doable in my first session. I came back two days later and it went down pretty fast☺️ I think the style and the moves suited me very well."

Martina Demmel reports on Insta that she has done Deltaplane man direct (8c+) in Entraygues. The 20-year-old started climbing in 2017 and already in 2019, she onsighted her first, out of six, 8b's. Last year she did her first 9a and onsighted her second 8b+ and she was actually #1, ahead of all males, in the 8a onsight ranking game. Unfortunately, the year ended with a broken foot after a massive fall in Oliana. Since 2020, she has done most World Cups and her best result is #15. (c) Fabian Herentrey

How is your broken foot and how do you combine outdoors and competitions?
Thanks for asking, my foot is all good again since March, so I was definitely lucky that I could climb without any limitations after three months already😁! Overall, my main focus shifted to preparing well for the lead comps the upcoming years especially because I'm gonna start an education with a special program for national team members of all sports. It's perfect to combine training and learning a job at the same time + to have a safe place where to work later😊 therefore, way less rock climbing in the next years but I'm still trying to fit in 1-2 days on the weekends🌞! But first, the last Lead WC's of the season are coming.

Hugo Hoyer and Anastasia Sanders, both from the USA, got the golds in the Youth B category in Dallas. Sanders flashed all four problems and won on countback over Natsumi Oda from Japan who also just needed four tries doing all four boulders. "I didn’t feel a lot of pressure this competition because I knew I could do all the Boulders and I was capable of flashing all of them, I just need to be a little bit careful.” Interestingly, the final boulders were way easier than both the qualification and semi-rounds. Complete results

Hugo Sanders did three boulders as also the runner-up Matteo Reusa from Italy did. “I love that style of Boulder,” Hoyer commented on the final problem. “And when I came out to preview I thought it looked like a fun Boulder. I knew if I topped it I would be in a good place. I pulled up and swung and came off the first time but thought I can do this, and the second time around I stuck it. After that I was really happy.”Complete results