Matteo Menardi has done hos sixth 9a, Underground in Arco. (c) Marco Menardi "Last week I came to Torbole on holiday with my family, I also had to take two university exams. Since the conditions were quite good, I decided to try Underground. This unique route is split into two parts: the first features dynamic moves and ends with a "power-hungry" boulder problem, which is the crux. After a very good rest, there's the tricky second part, where in my opinion body tension plays a big role, especially at the very end. I tried the route for four days, yesterday I made no mistakes and got to the top."

Daniel Woods has made another FAs in Brazil, Enter the Wood 8B+ and Direct Hit 8C in Ubatuba. "Left arete of Fortaleza. 7 move v14 (8B+) intro straight into final v11 (8A) sequence of Fortaleza. Amazing movement, powerful, skin friendly." In total, Daniel has now done 26 8C's and 5 8C+'s and in the annual ranking game, he is #2 after Jimmy Webb. (c) Matty Hong

The Top-20 in the Combined ranking will go to the Olympic qualifying event in Toulouse with six sports to Tokyo. However, anyone being Top-7 in the Combined World Championship in Tokyo in august will get the Tokyo ticket and most probably they are not allowed to practice on the Combined format in Toulouse. As this, in fact, is the only event using the exact same format as in Tokyo it could be considered unfair to not allow also the ones who qualified in august. As the maximum quota per country is two, it just might be that it will be good enough to be Top-30, or even Top-35 in theory, in the Combined ranking in order to participate in Toulouse. One dilemma is of course if, let us say Germany got two guys Top-7 in WCH and later one of them get an injury stopping him from participating in the Olympics. Then they the first reserve will get called in and in such case it would not be fair to not let also the third French male participating in Toulouse if having qualified. From the first combined ranking we can see that Adam Ondra is missing since he has not yet done two Speed and Lead events. Interesting to see that in the female ranking, there are five Speed specialists among the Top-25.

Katie Lamb has during the last ten days flashed two 7C+' as well as redpointed two 8A+'. In the picture we see Mind Matters in Guanella Pass and the next week she did No More Greener Grasses in Mt Evans. "Topping out about 10 seconds before a downpour made for a wet, yet spicy time! Arriba! 3rd try from the bottom? Right in my wheelhouse. My friends Stick “Brian” Nuggels and Liam “A-Bulldog” gave me momentum for a big day at Guanella Pass because Stick is The Greatest Flasher and has the “Big Stick Energy”. With my friends near I felt the Power of strong belief and positive thought wave frequencies. I was like “go go go” and made a flash on Toxic Shock Low and Crimping Matters, both 7C+, my first flashes at the grade. The friendship and happiness was really in the air now, and I turned to the big show, Mind Matters (8A+).

Davide Picco has done his fourth 9a, Biologico in Arco. Interesting is that the Italian started climbing at 19 and then in just three years he reached 8b and after six years he did his first 9a. "As for the fast progress I've been climbing for 8 years now, during the first period I used to train twice a week, but then the number increased to 6/7 because I really much liked the sport, sort of addictive. I mainly train indoors on intense endurance circuits of 25 movements or so, but I also like pure power sessions on training boards or on pan gullich."

Jorge Diaz-Rullo has done his fourth 9a+, Biographie in Céüse. Including also one 9b and one 8C boulder etc, the 19 year old is the superior Combined ranking game leader. "For me is a dream the route. Amazing place, experience, process and all the people that support me. At finish, I was working 8 days and I used the other betas for the boulders. THANK YOU! MERCI!"

The Speed Highlights video from Chamonix starts with the small final where both the female fall. According to the rule, then the winner should be the one with the best qualification time = Aries Susanti. Instead it was decided that they should have a re-run and then Aleksandra Kalucka got the bronze. "3) where both competitors record the same time or neither competitor records a valid time (other than where a False Start has occurred): a) the competitor with the highest (best) qualification ranking; or b) if both competitors have the same qualification ranking, the relevant race shall be re-run;"

This still shows that Molly has not control of hold 42 before she tried to move towards hold 43 and got the 42+. In other words, she is holding 41.5 and could just have gotten 41.5+ trying to move from that hold. Further more, in order to get a + you need to, "effect a progressive movement of their centre of mass or hips; and". Unfortunately, it is impossible to understand if Molly did a progressive movement or not from the video but several coaches as well as athletes on site, say they did not think so. As a matter of a fact, as Janja matched on hold 42 in a controlled way her centre of mass was much closer to hold 43 than Molly's.

Isabelle Faus has done her 37th 8A+, Small Box in Coal Creek. "It’s a fun climb with a couple hard moves off a bad crimp and a tricky toe hook. Been having a fun summer climbing on this boulder and in the park. I’m psyched to go Africa in a couple weeks, hopefully I can do a few more things in the mountains before we go." The picture is from Spread eagle in RMNP, her 8A #55. The last 12 months she has also done one 8B+ and eight 8B's and she is #1 in the 8a ranking game.