Marco Zanone has done Adam Ondra's El Potro 9a in Margalef in less than ten tries. The Italian has previously done 14 8c+'s and two 9a's. We asked Marco if he could share his story and how Covid-19 affected the trip.

"At the beginning of February, I planned a ten days trip to Spain with a couple of friends and we knew we had to take all the precautions due to covid restriction. Two days before to leave we took the covid test and once we were sure to be all negative, on the 27th of February we left for Spain. The plan was to climb at the Laboratori sector with the goal to climb First Ley (9a), a route I started trying at the end of December 2019. I felt ready to climb it but for the first time, the conditions were bad. I was trying my best but I was not able to succeed. One day the conditions felt even worse for me, so I decided to try something else. I didn't go too far and I chose to try "El Potro".

Since the first try, I felt good on the moves because the style suited me very well. Big moves and big pinches on a power resistant route. I tried for two other days, on and off with "First Ley", which was still my main project, and I eventually sent it on the last day of the trip. It felt like a soft 9a to me, but I also know that when I climbed Bumaye (8c+) in 2017, I'm quite sure I would not have been able to do the crux boulder of El Potro, so maybe it makes sense to call it 9a. Hopefully, it will get more attention in the near future, the route is rad!"

Featuring Giuliano Cameroni, Daisuke Ichimiya, Clément Lechaptois, Marine Thevenet and Diego Cameroni doing "New King Lines" in Cresciano up to 8C.

Tom Bolger reports on Insta that he has done the FA of Mr Big 9a in Margalef, saying it is "probably the best route I’ve ever bolted." (c) Esteban Lahoz

Please describe the route and why it is so good?
It is an independent route, over 25m long and probably 35 degrees in the steepest section. The route has a great flow! It is very continuous with two distinct jump moves, and with only one rest on the whole route forcing the climber to move efficiently and quickly, so the climbing flows beautifully :)

Earlier this year, Tom has done two 9a/+ FAs also in Margalef where he lives since a couple of years. Previously he has told 8a that the reason for him sending more projects is that due to Covid-19, he has travelled less back to the U.K. where he works with rope access. Currently, he is studying to become a climbing guide in Spain.

It is a well-known fact that vertical old-school climbs are often considered sandbagged by the modern generation, while the opposite is true for old steep climbs. As a matter of fact, most of the steep hardcore boulders from the early '00s have been, or are discussed to be, downgraded.

When Fred Rouhling put up the almost 15 meters roof Akira in 1995, he thought it was way harder than anything he had tried, so he graded it 9b. Several of the best at the time tried it but could not repeat it and some actually thought Rouhling had lied. Last November, Lucien Martinez and Seb Bouin made the first repeats quickly and, although not using a knee pad, suggest 9a for it. 8a have talked to all three involved and they agree on this explanation of why Akira went from 9b to 9a, and could possibly be even 8c+ with knee pads.

1. Less roof and core training
Back in 1995, Fred had little possibilities to train roofs and his core as such challenges almost did not exist. Today, the new generation trains on roofs and their core almost every session. Lifting up your feet in roofs and climbing feet first is a natural part of the game for many years now.

2. Scary due to stones, no crash pad or spotters
When Fred trained and later did Akira, the cave was full of stones on the ground, he had no crash pads and no spotters. Climbing with toe and heel hooking was dangerous, and in a video recorded in 2006 we can see that Fred climbs mainly footless, swinging around in a monkey style. In the Seb Bouin training video, we can see that the ground is flat, and that he has a tentative spotter and several crash pads.

3. Old shoes performing worse on toe- and heel hooking
Fred was climbing in some old EB's, which compared to modern shoes had less rubber on the toes and a less-developed heel hook box.

In sum, the modern style creates many different and better sequences and resting positions. Where Seb and Lucien are resting or going feet first, Fred was often desperate hanging around. Sure, Seb and Lucien did also have to use some moves monkey style without using their feet but immediately after they put up his shoes and started to rest. Another possible explanation could be that holds have broken and gotten bigger, which Fred originally suggested. Note also that none of the repeaters used knee pads and that the route could possibly be 8c+ with them. In any case, history shows that Fred was ahead of his time and his other hard FAs of the time have all been confirmed. It seems logical that he graded his hardest, by far, as a 9b in 1995 and that it became 9a in 2020. See also the 8a grading theory from 2005, that confirms this logic:

"Many years ago, climbing activities took place on vertical trad routes giving climbers certain abilities to succeed and grade these routes. Today, on the opposite, most training occurs in steep indoor gyms giving other prevailing skills for climbers. This has changed the community's time/success ratio on a different type of route/boulders, and grades have to be changed. In practice, this means that some steep old routes should be in the risk-zone of being downgraded."

Tomoa Narasaki reports on Insta that he has set a new PB in Speed with 5.73 (video) and that his goal for the Olympics is 5.5. This is just totally remarkable and strengthens Narasaki's chances of getting the gold in Tokyo. Bassa Mawem, with 5.58, is the only Olympian that has a better PB and Tomoa is now more than 10% faster than all the non "Speed-specialist". If he wins the Speed qualification, most probably none of the specialists will make it to the Top-8 final. Then, the Japanese will most likely win Speed in the final, meaning that it is probably good enough for him to be at least #2 in either Lead or Boulder to win the gold.

The 5.73 also confirms this article from 2018: The Speed experts were dead wrong. In different articles from 2015, three Speed medalists have claimed that it would be very hard to get below seven seconds. "To get below 7 seconds in Tokyo 2020 you need to focus half of your training on Speed as well as gaining some weight in the whole body." The first time Narasaki got below 7 seconds was after having trained it for three sessions.

As a side note, the 5.73 also put questions marks on the Speed scene. OK, Reza Alipourshenazandifar has the world record with 5.48 and unofficially, Qixin Zhong has done 5.35 when he won the China Nationals. However, getting below 6 seconds often means you will get a medal and these guys train Speed 24/7. At the same time, there might be just 30 males who train Speed as a full-time sport, and possibly only ten who have done this during the full last five years.

It just might be that if the best competition climbers took a break and only focused on Speed, as the speciality, they would have taken over the scene pushing the world record close to five seconds in a couple of years.

The Olympic male Combined qualification is scheduled for August 3rd and the Top-8 final for August 5th. Adam Ondra has had the Olympics as his big goal since 2019, when he for the first time since 2015 completed most of the World Cup. In 2019 and 2020 he won all four Lead WCs he participated in and in Bouldering he was #2 overall in 2019. (c) Lukas Biba

How do you plan to train, travel and compete in the last six months before the Olympics and how does Covid-19 impact your training?
I am mostly just planning to stay at home, training and going for a few World Cups before the Olympics. (if they won't be cancelled). As I am a professional, fortunately, I have access to the gyms, so apart from travel restrictions, I cannot complain.

Have you considered just skipping Speed training due to the multiplication format?
Skipping speed could have been an option for me, but improvement of speed might be beneficial in certain styles of bouldering and that is why I do train speed.

Who do you train together with and what does a training partner mean to you?
Rishat Khaibulin lives in Brno, so we train together quite often and besides, there are a few other climbers from the Czech team that I occasionally train together, mostly bouldering on a spraywall. Still, I do most of my training sessions without a training partner. Proper training partner would be great, not only to boost motivation when you feel tired, but also for learning from each other, most importantly in modern bouldering. Unfortunately, Martin Stranik who would be the perfect training partner lives quite far away and we get to train together rarely.

Who are your three favourites for getting a medal?
Really hard to predict in this format.

The format is based on multiplication of the results in the three disciplines. In other words, even if you get a good result in all disciplines, 4 * 4 * 4 = 64 points, you will probably not get a medal. With the multiplication, it is better to be 1 * 7 * 8 = 56 points. Overall, out of the 8 male finalist, probably at least six of them have good chances of winning one discipline, i.e. getting a medal.

Some 20 years ago, there existed very few fixed boulders in the gyms. Instead, everyone had to be creative putting up new boulders on the spray walls. In the same way, beta videos of routes and boulders were rare, meaning that climbers were constantly challenged finding the sequences.

When it comes to training, very few protocols existed and most of the best were just climbing and possibly experimenting with training. Chris Sharma and Adam Ondra became the best climbers in the world without having had a coach or a fixed training program.

Today, a whole industry of online training has emerged, providing shortcuts to advancement in grades. This is, of course, a good thing, but at the same time such structured approaches might reduce climbers' creativity and you can get injured. Furthermore, following a protocol with the only purpose of getting stronger as quickly as possible might make you lose your climbing lifestyle perspective. It might also be that you will lack technical and tactical skills in comparison to your physical strength.

A balanced approach of following structured advices as well as maintaining and developing the creativity is preferred, especially for the kids.

Loic Zehani, who the last year has done five FAs 9a and harder, has done the FA of Les Colos Fachos 8c+/9a in Orgon.
"It is a route of about twenty natural movements bolted by Olivier Bert. There is the first section in approximately 8A boulder followed by another in approximately 7B+ boulder."

What are your next projects?
Currently, I am trying a combination between Sachidananda and Bronx which should be 9a+ or 9b and I fell on the last move last Saturday. In the Calanques at the Grotte de l'Ours, I try Electoman (it's an old big 8c+ by Rémy Bergasse) but a hold has broken in the crux and it should be 9a+ now. And a few other projects all over the place. Otherwise, my big long-term project is located at the Canal in Orgon, it makes 80 movements and will be 9b+.

By checking his Insta, it is easy to think that Yuki Hiroshima could be the strongest climber in the world. This 35-year-old started publishing Insta hang board work outs last spring, a couple of months after he took up climbing after a four years break. In the meantime he got twins twice!

His big goal is to do an 8C but that will have to wait until 2022 as it is almost four hours travel to the nearest one. Meanwhile his focus is hang board training where some of his 6 mm records are: 40 pull-ups, one pull-up with 50+ kg (95 % of his weight), one-arm pull-up and 25 seconds in two + two fingers.

Could you please explain how you train and what are your goals?
I have a lot of goals and I think I'll be able to pull-up a 4mm one arm in the near future. After that, I am aiming for 6mm one arm pull-ups 3 reps and one finger one arm pull-ups 10 reps.

Most of the training is hangboard, I do it alone I also climb with my friends at the climbing gym once a week. I train three or four times a week at lunch time because my workplace is close.

I think 30 minutes of training time a day is fine. For example, if you can pull up 3 times, make it 4 times. Repeat it. Above all, enjoying training is the secret to continuing for a long time. The real answer is to keep going every day as much as you can to break your record yesterday.

Jorge Diaz-Rullo reports on Insta that he has done First Ley 9a+ in Margalef after six days of projecting. (c) Eduardo Ruano Li

During the last 12 months, the 21-year-old has done 17 routes 9a to 9b and he is #1 in the 8a ranking game. Overall, he has done 44 routes 8c+/9a and harder, meaning that he is #7 in that all time list. Next up is doing Chris Sharma’s First Round First Minute 9b. Here is a shortinterview from January when he did his fourth 8C boulder.