karoline sinnhuber, who was #8 in the Boulder WC last year, has done La Pelle left 8A and Kirk Windstein 8A (+) in Cresciano. (c) Fabian Leu ”I decided to stop competing a few weeks ago and just do outdoor stuff from now on. There are so many areas I wanna visit and I’m not really psyched for that comp style anymore.”

Ryohei Kameyama has done his third 8C, Kuzan in Mie which is a seven moves 8B+ that finishes with a 8B dyno. (c) Muraguchi Liao "This hard boulder was established two years ago by Toshi Takeuchi. I tried it for three sessions. I'm so happy and satisfied to feel my progress. I would like to try "Off the wagon low start" and "Sleepwalker". These boulders are so cool!"

Nico Ferlitsch has done his second 9a, Sanjski par extension in Osp/Misja Pec after some 35 tries, video. "In the last two weekends I had some very close attempts but yesterday it was finally done. The route is very overhanging, partly even a horizontal roof, where you need a lot of bodytension and fingerstrength on small crimps. This is something I really love. My ambition for 2019 is to climb more hard stuff, but for now it's time to visit my home climbing areas, to do some training and just have some fun. In spring I want to go again to Frankenjura for making some tries on the famous route "Action Directe". At the moment there are no comps around, maybe (if it takes place this year) I will compete at the event "Free Solo Masters" in Lienz. I'm still a passionate ROCKclimber but we will see what the future will bring."

Petra Klingler, Boulder World Champion from 2016 and who last year was #6 in the Combined WCHin Innsbruck, got the bronze last weekend in the UIAA Ice World Cup. Vladek Zumr In 2015, Petra was #2 overall and since then she has just done few and actually most of the time gotten a medal. Interesting to see world class skill in two totally different climbing disciplines. She is active on Insta and we can see she enjoys all disciplines and training hard with the goal qualifying to Tokyo.

Alex Puccio has had a nice day in Clear Creek Canyon where she did Off the books 8A (c) Robin O'Leary and No Halfway Crooks 8A+. "Really fun climb! SOOO cold out! The only way I was able to climb today was from the hype and motivation from Fausey, Chad, Daniel and Robin! Thanks guys and thanks for showing us this boulder! :)"

Adam Ondra reports on Insta that he has done Catxasa 9a+ and Neanderthal 9b in Santa Linya. Ondra started working the Chris Sharma 9b back in 2011 and then he tried it for several days also in 2015, 2017 and 2019 until he sent it. (c) Artofroute "There are not many routes that I can tell about that I really hated then at certain point. But Neanderthal was definitely one of them. Not because the route is of bad quality, just because how many times I failed again and again. Getting over it and finally succeeding was a huge lesson." In total, the 25 year old Czech has now done 24 routes 9b and harder. The runner ups are Chris Sharma with eight followed by Jakob Schubert and Stefano Ghisolfi with five 9b's or harder.

Thilo Schröter started off his trip to Hueco Tanks with an inflamed finger which luckily healed. During the first three weeks the Norweigian has done a total of 22 boulders 8A and harder out of which seven flash. More pics by Tina Hafsaas. More pics on his Insta. It’s my first trip to Hueco, so naturally I have a lot of moderate classics to sample, and that’s what I’ve done. Milage is a lot if fun but after a month of rampage it’s time to get on some harder things. Two more weeks in Hueco ahead, and then a week checking out Red Rocks before flying back home. Then I’ll have a month to train and enjoy good conditions in Norway before the BWC‘s start. As of now I’m only planing on competing at the first three that are in Europe, and focus more on rock for the rest of the year with trips to Rocklands, Grampians, Font and the Norwegian west coast. And I plan to do Tokyo as well.”

From the updated 2019 IFSC rules we can see that they have increased the number of finalists in the Combined finals to eight instead of six. Further more, in bouldering there will be only three boulders separating the finalists. The reason for this is of course that bouldering otherwise would have taken some two hours but with just three boulders around 90 minutes. This means more pressure on the route setters and the risk for ties and random results will increase. In practice, most probably this means easier problems and the one onsighting the most will win. Further more, due to worse friction and more pressure on the guys in the end of the starting list (the ones who were the best in Speed), the risk for up-side-down results will increase. On the other hand, this some will feel is good for the excitement before Lead.

Tina Hafsaas, #4 in Chamonix Lead WC in 2017, has done two 8A's and Rumble in the Jungle 8A (+) in Hueco Tanks. More pics and info on her Insta, (c) Thilo Schröter. "I’m having a blast here in Hueco Tanks. The style suits me pretty well with steep and long climbing mainly on crimps. I had a great week by sending Le Chninkel and Sunshine each in one session and finish Rumble in the Jungle pretty fast as well. Now I’m sucked into project mode on a few boulders that feel harder for me. They challenge me in styles and techniques I’m not as good at and I hope I will finish them off before we head to Red Rocks. I will do the full lead World Cup and the European and World Championship in lead. I will not aim for the Olympics as the format does not feel like the sport I am passionate about."

Danyil Boldyrev believes he and some other Speed specialist have a great chance of qualify to Tokyo during the WCH, where the Top-7 get an Olympic ticket. He will go for at least two Lead and Boulder World Cups before the WCH in Tokyo and he thinks and hope at least 15 Speed specialist will participate. Training wise his focus is Bouldering and he hopes to be Top-40. In Lead, it might be harder for the explosive power house at 193 cm and 85 kg to fight the endurance. "In the competition I will be 78-80 kg. "I love bouldering so much and train three to four times a week. I am a sprinter and athlete in mind, blood, muscles and I love competitions. I always focus and enjoy, and say God, thank you for new day." The key for Boldyrev or any other Speed-specialist making it to Tokyo is not so much their personal result in Lead and Boulder but how many Speed specialists that will compete in the WCH. Further more, as only the first Japanese get a ticket to Tokyo in the WCH, in theory also #12 can qualify if all the Japanese are Top-11. If Boldyrev win Speed and becomes #40 and #80 in the other two disciplines he should mathematically be #10 - 15 if some 15 Speed specialists participate in Combined. If there are 25 Speed specialist he would mathematically be #8 - 12. So it is certainly a long shoot for the Ukrainian or any other Speed specialist to reach Tokyo. On the other hand there is the Tripartite option, meaning some guys will invite a qualification Lucky looser to participate. Once in Tokyo, there is like a 20 % chance that 1 * 20 * 20 will make it to the Top-8 final. Once in the Top-8 final, mathematically the chances for the bronze is like 10 %. However, for 193 cm Boldyrev there is always the chance that he on a slab or a vertical problem he might use his reach and become one of the few doing it. Later he can just hope that the route setter has made a mistake and almost no other top the remaining three and Boldyrev gets #10 in Bouldering. In the Combined final there are just three problems 2019 so theoretically the Olympic gold winner in Tokyo can be Danyil Boldyrev.