Nathan Michel is having his best bouldering year ever doing five 8B+' and now his second 8C, The Big Island in Fontainebleau. Video on his Insta. Until 2019, the 27-year-old had just done a total of three 8B+'.

"This year is a special one for me since I feel like I can finally start to express myself on the rock. I believe it comes from a few changes: - There is now around me a well-developed community of climbers that creates a strong emulation, making motivation and training easier,
- I seriously started proper training for bouldering again,
- I spend all of my free time climbing and go bouldering outside at every chance I get.

All this allowed me to finally climb a line I had been dreaming about for a long time: The Big Island. I had already tried it a few times three years ago, but I wasn’t strong enough at that time. In September, while listing on a paper my new goals for this year so as to plan my training, I included this boulder without hesitation. I then had two sessions in October that allowed me to refine my betas and work on the movements. I was close to sending it but conditions were far from perfect and I ended up being too tired to do it anyway. Though at the end of November, conditions looked like they were going to be excellent, so I planned another trip in Font. The first session allowed me to get back into the sequences and then, the morning after, I finally sent it on my second try of the day!"

Last year there was 120 male competing in the Munich Bouldering qualification. That meant that although two groups were used, the qualification lasted almost six hours as the athletes are allowed to spend five minutes on each of the five problems with five minutes rest in between. Besides being a marathon for all the volunteers the condition, due to temperature and humidity changes, could be changed.

By using four minutes intervals, as in both the semi and the final, you will save one hour but my suggestion is actually to reduce to three minutes as this would mean a total of almost 3.5 hours instead of six hours. As a matter of a fact, even if we increase to six minutes rest in between, we are still well below four hours duration. Furthermore, if we start on all five boulders at the same time and have six minutes rest, the total time will be three hours.

This would actually also mean that the setters would just need to set five boulders instead of ten, which also would save cost talking about building walls. Add to that also that the five boulders do not need to be set so straight up and so close to each other as it would have been for ten boulders.

Alternatively, adding a sixth boulder would increase fairness and could in fact save time as 54 guys would be finished in just 2 hours and 42 minutes. Furthermore, using two zones and a point scoring system, as have been presented before, I think is the most important subject when talking about fairness and action for both the athletes and the spectators.

1. Tomoa Narasaki JPN - Janja Garnbret SLO
2. Adam Ondra CZE - Miho Nonaka JPN
3. Jakob Schubert AUT - Akiyo Noguchi JPN
4. Bassa Mawem FRA* - Anouck Jaubert FRA*
5. Kai Harada JPN - Shauna Coxsey GBR
6. Alex Megos GER - Viktoria Meshkova RUS
7. Alberto Gines Lopez ESP - Laura Rogora ITA
8. Alexey Rubtsov RUS - Petra Klingler SUI
9. Jan Hojer GER - Brooke Raboutou USA
10. Rishat Khaibullin KAZ* - YiLing Song CHI*

*The most certain prediction in the Tokyo Olympics is that, due to the multiplication format, there will be a Speed specialist finishing #4 or #5. The Speed qualification winner will probably make it to the Top-8 final even if being dead last in Lead and Boulder. Among the female, with four Speed specialists and the African representant, it is actually possible that the Top-2 in Speed will make it to the final, meaning that there exists a "risk" for a Speed specialists bronze. Mathematically, including also some potential non-sportsmanship acting, the risk is actually rather big. It just takes that the #2 in Speed is like #16 in Boulder and #14 in Lead and she could advance to the final, as long as some of the best like Janja Garnbret, Miho Nonaka and Akiyo Noguchi are high ranked in all disciplines.

Another twist is that, from creating the best show, let us hope for Rishat Khaibullin making it to the final. He can challenge the speed-specialist although being ok also in Boulder. In the World Championship, he got the bronze and he can do it again if he is at least Top-2 in Speed.

Toby Roberts and Josh Ibbertson have done the classical Rainshadow 9a at Malham Cove. The excellent 35 meter route was put up by Steve McClure in 2003 and even Adam Ondra has said, "Honestly one of the best climbs I have done." Both Toby and Josh did Raindogs 8a, at age ten, which is the start of Rainshadow. Toby won the European Youth Boulder Championships and was 2nd in the European Youth Lead Championships in 2019.

"I broke my ankle in January and had worked really hard on my rehab and conditioning to be ready for the comp season." When the lockdown came, they built a Moonboard in the garden setting up Rainshadow as his goal. In October they started doing 10-hour roundtrips to Malham but the process was slow in the beginning. All in all, it took him some 20 sessions to send.

"As a climber, I think the most important thing to do is to climb. Climbing is about a lot more than being strong which can only take you so far. Footwork, hip flexibility, efficiency, reading sequences (particularly for comp climbing), improvising on the wall, making good decisions – everything improves with experience and repeatedly going through the process. For me, climbing has always been the most important part of training."

The 15-year-old's next goal is Hubble 9a (8c+) and then Rainman 9b, which has a different much harder finish than Rainshadow. In the long term perspective, he would like to compete in the Olympics. Long interview at Climber.co.uk and The BMC.co.uk. Toby's Insta has the full video of the send. More comments to follow from Josh and his father James (45), who did Bat route as his first 8c, the same day Toby sent his first 9a.

Brooke Raboutou, who will compete in Tokyo next year, and Natalia Grossman have done Prospectors 8A in St. Vrain. Brooke has done a total of 35 boulders 8A to 8B+ in 2020 and Natalia has sent 36 up to 8B. In the 8a ranking game, the 19-year-olds are #3 and #6 respectively.

Brooke: "Fun one! Feels so good to be back in CO and climbing on some real rock with the best of friends! Felt very hard to get by butt off the ground but once I did I sent the boulder lol." More on her Insta.
Natalia: "Such a fun boulder! Hard to pull your butt of the ground haha. First day back outside with my climbing buddy which of course means another send train!" More on her Insta.

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Jonathan Flor reports on Insta reports that he has done Adam Ondra's La Planta de Shiva 9b in Villanueva del Rosario, after working on it for ten weeks. The Spaniard has previoulsy done 38 routes 8c+/9a and harder and he calls this his hardest ever. "The continuation, the motivation and the support of those around me have been the three key factors to be able to send this route." (c) Maragda Gabarre

The 24-year-old finished a five-year intensive competition career in 2018, being #23 in the Boulder World Championship in Innsbruck. He has previously also done a handful of 8C's.