The World Championships in Innsbruck have started, and besides the official comps, there are a lot of exciting side events. Three boulder jams will take place throughout the next days. For the first time, the newly released Smart Scorecard by Vertical-Life will be used to run these competitions. The web application replaces the use of paper sheets. Climbers can use their smartphone, tablet or a laptop for ticking ascents. Spectators will instantly see the results online or on TV screens on site. For the event organizers, this means that end results are available straight away, there is no paper work and no mistakes happen when evaluating points. At Innsbruck, the Kids Contest by Black Diamond on Sep 7th, the Walltopia Boulder Challenge on Sept 11th and the Rookies Cup by Raiffeisen on Sep 12th will be the first events to benefit from the digital scorecard. The Smart Scorecard has been designed for big and small climbing competitions. Event organizers can get in touch with Vertical-Life ([email protected]) to find out more about the setup.

Although the difficulty of the routes were almost spot on with only Adam Ondra topping two routes, after some competitors in the start it was noticed that one hold was wrongly placed and some seven climbers were allowed to re-climb the route. On another route, a banner logo was inside the route and unfortunately, Romain Desgranges had been standing on it, meaning the ruling world champion failed to make it to the semi. In fact, also Ondra seemed to have touched but anyhow, if he would have been called down he would still made it to the semi as he was the only to top the other route. (c) JOHANN GRODER - Innsbruck2018.com It should also be mentioned that there were several protests so it was a very hectic day for the jury president. The biggest sensation was that Rudolph Runa qualified to semi as #5. Japan was overall the best nation with five guys through to the semi and seven guys Top-31. Also Italy had a very good result with three in Top-11. Also Austria did get three into semi Top-26. Complete results

The female have started their two first qualification routes and here you have the updated results and the live streaming. You can also down load the App, "IFSC Lead" and follow the results and via "Innsbruck" stay updated.. Full schedule etc is available on IFSC. Tomorrow the 126 male will do the Lead qualification and it is about to make it among Top-26 to make it to the semifinal. Both male and female compete in two groups doing two different routes so in practice, you need to be Top-13 in each group to make it to the semi. On Saturday, the female will do the semi at 13.00 and the final at 19.00 and on Sunday it is the male with the same schedule.

In general, the 20 top ranked Combined female did really well. 13 made it to the semi: Garnbret, Pilz, Kim, Noguchi, Sa, Shiraishi, Kotake, Nonaka, Klingler, Hily, Lettner, Ekatarina Kipriianova and Hayes. The results for #27 Vita Lukan, #31 Brooke Raboutou, #39 Stasa Geio, #40 Cliare Buhrfeind, #50 Laura Stöckler, #51 Alex Puccio and #75 Anna Tsyganova. Complete results

The World Championship in Innsbruck got an excellent start with four almost perfect routes for the female. All the big names on top of the list including Janja Garnbret who was the only one to get two Tops. In fact, all Top-10 mentioned by 8a made it through to the Top-26 semifinal. Complete results (c) Erich Spiess More pics from Innsbruck2018. In general, Austria was the best country with three girls Top-8 and a total of four to the semi. Japan did only participate with three female and they were all Top-12. Also Slovenia did get three women to the semifinal and seven in Top-34.

Tristan Chen skips 9a and does his first 9a+, Jaws II in Rumney. His first and only 8c+ he did in 2015. (c) Kevin Donovan "I put 22 days in over three years. Spent the whole summer in 2016 working the crux move on Jaws, but didn't stick the move. Was kinda close to the move last year, but still didn't do it. I finally did it this spring, but dry fired right after and couldn't send. Rumney is my home crag and Jaws has been the hardest thing for over 1000 miles so I've always wanted to do it. Flew into Boston from Denver for the weekend just to do this climb, and did it first day back on about 3 hours of sleep, and two donuts for breakfast. The difference was that I was just way stronger than before, I trained non stop through the spring, and climbed much more outside, than I have in the past, through the summer. I trained lock offs on and off for the last couple years. This spring I actually only campused for about 2 months, since my foot was injured. That and quite a bit of weight lifting."

Who will win the Lead World Championship, including speculative odds. 1. Janja Garnbret 1.3 - Adam Ondra 3 2. Jessica Pilz 4 - Jakob Schubert 3.5 3. Anak Verhoeven 5 - Stefano Ghisolfi 6 4. Jain Kim 10 - Romain Desgranges 8 5. Akiyo Noguchi 12 - Domen Skofic 10 6. Miho Nonaka 20 - Alex Megos 12 Contenders: Helene Janicot, Manon Hily, Ashima Shiraishi, Mei Kotake - 30 Shuta Tanaka, Sascha Lehmann, Max Rudigier and Tomoa Narasaki - 30

alizee dufraisse has done her third 8B the last month in Rocklands, Fragile Steps which she gives a personal 8A+ grade as it just took her three sessions. In the 8a ranking game, the French is #5. "Now Switzerland and USA more bouldering before Spain and La Rambla. I m super sycked to go back this winter!! Let's see. I'll focus on that all winter. Start some route climbing in America before, mixing with bouldering and then Spain."

Samuel Ometz, who has done 16 boulders 8B+ and 8C, has done his first 9a, Cabane au Canada in Rawyl. (c) Rainer Eder "Summergoal achieved! Probably not the hardest for the grade, but a good challenge if you come from bouldering and have to build the endurance. I had some Finger injuries the past two years that didn't allow me to climb at 100%, which was getting frustrating over time. So this spring I decided to seriously try sport climbing as it's less intense on the fingers and there is a lot of climbing around my home that I never even tried. Now there are so many projects I want to do! Plan for this autumn is to try some shorter routes to transition better to the bouldering winter season. The main two lines I want to try are Coup de grace and an unclimbed project close to my home.

IFSC reports that 173 athletes have registered to compete in all three disciplines. This means that most of the guys doing Bouldering and Lead will also compete in Speed. On the other hand, very few of the best Speed climbers will try the other two disciplines. "The six top-scoring men and women will qualify for the Combined finals on the last day, the first of its kind at the IFSC World Championships."