The Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires was a great show although different when it comes to topping frequency in comparison to WCH in Innsbruck. This certainly made it more fun to watch for the general public but some climbers think Lead should be about difficulty and not Speed. In general, I think the Speed element in Lead could be nice for the semifinal which otherwise sometimes can be more boring. However, in any case split times are crucial to increase excitement to understand who is climbing faster 3/4 up the route. Further more, having more than two guys topping out the final must be considered a route setting mistake. IFSC should make a statement how they want the route setting in order to inform if the Olympic candidates should also start training sprint up Lead routes below three minutes. When it comes to bouldering, more tops are great like in Buenos Aires. On the other hand, the boulders seemed to involve less moves. Was the walls lower and less steep than normal? Possibly the route setter could lower the starting position with half a meter so there can be more action upwards to the top. And once again, two zones will force the route setters to make the boulders more interesting which both the climbers and the spectators will benefit from.

In the very first Speed race, the favorite Sam Avezou made a big slip and finished second at around 8.23. Later Shuta Tanaka fell and Peter Ivanov also made a slip so Sam was the fastest "lucky looser". In the semi Sam once again faced Pan Yufei and beat him with some split seconds. Later Pan beat Filip Schenk in the small final. In the final, Sam had a clean race and made a personal best with 6.96 seconds against Keita Dohi 7.00. Complete results It should be noted that only Tomoa Narasaki and Mickel Mamew, among the non-Speed specialists, have had a faster time at 6.70 respectively 6.77.

Hannah Meul started first out, as she had the worst results in qualification, and set the standard by topping out with ease. She took two long rest further down but as she understood the route was way to easy she speed up, although chalked up before getting to another jug at the top. All the five remaining did probably know Hannah had topped but even so, nobody could beat her time. The last one out was the overall leader Laura Lammer who only needed to be fourth to win overall. Nevertheless, the young Austrian climbed faster than the rest taking almost no rest and fell on the second last hold. (c) Eddie Fowke 1. Sandra Lettner 3 - 3 - 2 = 18 2. Vita Lukan 6 - 1 - 3 = 18 3. Laura Lammer 1 - 4 - 5 = 20 4. Hannah Meul 4 - 5 - 1 = 20 5. Elena Krasovskaia 2 - 6 - 4 = 48 6. Mao Nakamura 5 - 2 - 6 = 60 Complete results Interestingly, if Lammer had topped and finished #2 in Lead, she would have won (at 8 points), Meul would have been second (20), Vita Lukan third (24) and Lettner fourth (27).

In 2015, 8a asked some Speed specialist how difficult it would be for the non-Speed specialist to reach a very good standard. Based on the times of Tomoa Narasaki and Sam Avezou etc, they were actually dead wrong. At the same time, it seems that the younger ones much quicker adapt to going super fast in time. 2015: "In order to go below eight seconds, you probably need to do specific physical training for a year and also do many competitions, which would get you to understanding how to deal with the mental pressure. 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. Thus you will also have to deal with the mental pressure that your standard in Lead and Boulder will deteriorate and you will have to climb outdoors less." Narasaki did below 7 seconds after just three sessions and clearly he has sub 6.5 seconds capacity. Most probably we will see multiple non-Speed specialist doing sub 7 seconds in 2019 and during the Olympics, we just might see several doing around 6.5 seconds.

Jakub Konecny, #6 in the WCH in Innsbruck, has done two 9a's in Misja Pec; Sanjski par extension and Martin Krpan. The 19 yer old Czech did his first 9a this summer and now he has done seven. "Both routes felt like it’s pretty much my style. So maybe the real projects are still waiting.. I hope. Since I started to think about the training differently this year, a lot changed and I feel much more comfortably. Simply I changed the attitude to training, definitely train harder, on hundred percent, but also with the time to relax. Every time to focus, focus only on this thing:) I went to the WCH in Innsbruck without any expectations. It was one of the lasts comps this season and my goal was only to be satisfied with my climbing and to enjoy the atmosphere. I competed only in Lead and definitely I couldn’t wish any better result. Also continuing in the rounds alongside with Adam was super cool."

The clock did not work during the first race during the Speed final and it took over 20 min until they re-run the first race. Then everything went smooth until the final race when favorite, Elena Krasovskaia, slipped and Laura Lammer won. Third was Sandra Lettner followed by Hannah Meul, Mao Nakamura and Vita Lukan. In the qualification, Lammer was #6 but as she won and defends her results from the qualification in Lead and Boulder, she has good chances for a medal actually. Favorite for the gold is Sara Lettner, also from Austria, who was rather superior in the qually.

It did get exciting in the end as only one attempt separated the three who topped all four boulders. Vita Lukan needed 12 attempts, Mau Nakamura 13 and Sandra Lettner 14. On the other hand, this also means that the boulders were a bit to easy. Complete results Laura Lammer, #6 in the qually, leads but if the Lead results remain from the first round, she will be third after Sandra Lettner and Vita Lukan.

As there is no count back to previous round in the Olympics, Lead will be much more about Speed. In the male qualifation in Buenos Aires, we did see three tops separated by time and another seven further down the list. Among the female, nine out of the 21 had to be separated by time as they had the same hold score. In general, many climbers will take chances and climb faster including going for the "+" instead of taking every rest. It just might be that there is a crux midways, where several falls and then it is about to be fastest to that position if you are not one of the top climbers. In the same way, if the route setters have made it too easy, it is about sprinting to the top. The guys starting late will have the advantage listening to the crowd going crazy for the first top. The problem is that without digital split results like in slalom etc, it is very hard to know who is relatively fast etc. One solution is to measure split time 3-4 times to be used once the athletes score the hold.

Vadim Timonov is about to set new standards. Recently he did five 8B+' in just ten days and this week he started by doing The Understanding 8C as well as flashing The bizarre Ride 8A+ Counting just his send the last two weeks, he would have been #10 in the ranking game. Picture from his Insta. "I don't know was his first answer to a question explaining the recent peak so then we asked, Please guess! "Apparently a long break due to injury at the beginning of the year helped to relax and start training in a new way. At the beginning of the year I thought that this year I could forget about comps and projects on the rock. The injury was a rupture of acromion joint after a snow board fall in January which left him with two plates in the shoulder. Vadim begun to train again in May and the "new way" was just that he trained more. Normally he trains alone 4-6 times a week and outdoors on weekends. Interestingly is that he has no sponsor and actually buy even his La Sportiva. Great Scandinavia summer video for the Russian who made it to the semi in the WCH in Innsbruck before a protest took him out to #25.