NEWS

The Toulouse Olympic qualification starts November 28th and here is the 8a speculation who will make it. Among the male, no Boulder specialist have been listed simply because of Team Japan, although no one can qualify, is sending four Boulder specialists. This means that it will be much harder to get a good ranking in Boulder compared to in Lead. At the same time, as the Japanese are also very good at Speed they will, in general, get a high ranking overall meaning that most probably being Top-10 will be good enough. This will open up for possibly two Speed specialists qualifying to Tokyo. The ones suffering the most that the Japanese are allowed to compete are the boulder specialists that are also good Speed climbers like Jan Hojer and Manuel Cornu. Furthermore, as Jernej Kruder and Aleksei Rubtsov do not yet know if they can make it, the odds are against them. 1. Adam Ondra - Lucka Rakovec 2. Bassa Mawem - YiLing Song 3. Alberto Gines Lopez - YueTong Sang 4. Stefano Ghisolfi - Jain Kim 5. Sasha Lehmann - Julia Chanourdie 6. Alfian Muhammed - Anouck Jaubert Among the female, only two from Japan will compete at the same time there might be five Speed specialists. This will open up for the ones being relatively weak in Speed. At the same time, it is expected that both Slovenia and France and possibly also the USA will fill their country quota. This means that it just might be good enough to be Top-12 to get the Olympic ticket. In theory, it just might be three Speed specialists going to Tokyo.

Max Bertone, who did his first 8c last months, has done three 8b+ during just three days in Ouaki; M&M's, Partagas and XXX. The 12-year-old is little brother to Oriane, the most successful youth competition climber in 2019.

Buster Martin has done his firt 9a+, First Ley in Margalef and he executes the six first quick draws and the hardest part in just 53 seconds.

La grosse Tarlouze 8C by Giani Clement
Giani Clement, who had just done two 8B+' until 2018, reports on Insta that he has done the second repeat of Michael Piccolruaz' La Grosse Tarlouze in Magic Wood, which is his third 8c. Jonathan Heusser "It was probably my biggest fight I ever had to climb a boulder. It was a fight against the massive pump, due to the length of more than 40 moves, as well as a fight with the icy cold temps which were difficult to handle. The decisive factor for the successful ascent, apart from mental & physical aspects, was certainly the choice of the right tactics, especially because of the extremely cold rock, which tends to make my fingers so numb during climbing. A hot stone saved my life at the shaking point!" How can you explain your great progress in 2019? I think there are several factors. I've certainly become physically & mentally stronger, I've also trained in a structured way and prepared myself specifically for some boulders in cooperation with a coach (Patxi Usobiaga). Then I remained injury-free and put the focus on projecting & repeating hard boulders.

The Olympic qualification in Toulouse starts in ten days but still Jernej Kruder, Aleksei Rubtsov, Sandra Lettner and Iuliina Kaplina await confirmation if they are allowed to compete. Some four weeks ago they got an invitation to participate but later IFSC changed the qualification rules. Imagine how hard it is for them to actually train Speed etc in order to prepare as they do not know if they will go to Toulouse.

Decided 8B+ by Rei Kawamata (16)
Rei kawamata, two time Youth World Championship and #5 in a Boulder WC in 2019, has done his third 8B+, Decided and Yasya 8B in Mizugaki.

Southern Smoke 8c+ by Solveig Korherr
Solveig Korherr, an active competition climber until 2017 who had a personal best of 8b+ just seven months ago, has done her first 8c+, Southern Smoke in Red River Gorge. The last month she has done 14 routes 8a and harder and she is #1 in the 8a ranking game. (c) Billy Simek How can you explain your great progress in 2019? I have climbed a lot more outdoors in the past two years, but I have still been maintaining a high level of training discipline. I have gotten a lot better at projecting, in terms of dogging routes but also tactically projecting. Building my pyramid of grades over the last couple of years has boosted my self-confidence. I find that this is especially helpful when I approach harder redpoint goals. I also feel especially well-prepared for this trip to North America because I had an intensive six-week training cycle.

Two 8C FAs by Adam Ondra
16 November 2019

Two 8C FAs by Adam Ondra

Adam Ondra, preparing for the Toulouse Olympic qualification in just two weeks time, reports on Insta that he has had an amazing day doing three FAs; Nunavut 8C, Puฤmeloun 8C and Intensitos 8B. "One of the best days bouldering for sure." (c) Jakub Konecny