IFSC reports that Reza Alipourshenazandifar, who set the Speed World record last year at 5.48, has been selected as the Athlete of the year by © International World Games Association. In 2014, Adam Ondra won after having become the double World Champion in Lead and Boulder. “Wow, already two Athlete of the Year awards for sport climbing, the most of any sport,” said IFSC President Marco Scolaris. “Congratulations to Reza for this success as well as for his achievements in 2017. He is the fastest Speed climber and the first Iranian athlete to win gold at The World Games. Keep climbing!” IFSC and the climbing community just might need tp get prepared that Speed climbing will be at least as popular in the upcoming Olympic Games 2020.

Rafa Fanega has done his fifth 8c+, Alhakan in El Chorro, the last 9 months. The 43 year old did his first 8c when he was 35 years old and first 8c+ when he was 39. Interestingly he started climbing when he was 16 so we are talking about a really late bloomer. Rafa has bolted 1 000+ routes and most of which he has paid from his own pocket. In total, he has recorded almost 2 000 routes on his scorecard. "For me bolting is as important as climbing." The picture is from last year in Fin del Mundo where the 163 cm tall has put up most of his routes (c) Rual Santano.

Nacho Sánchez reports in his Instagram that he has done the first repeat of Beto Rocasolano's test piece El Indomable 8C+ in Tamajón, Spain, calling it hard 8C. In total Nacho has done six boulders 8C or harder out of which four FAs, including Crisis. Is this one of your hardest problems? Yes it is, but Crisis 8C (+) took me more effort cause maybe it was not my style. El Indomable has some endurance but also has much less moves.

Click on the picture for the schedule for the Innsbruck 2018 World Champion. The Combined will take place the last days and the next week, they will present the detailed intensive program for that day.

Ramon Julian did his first Lead World Cup in 2001 when he was 19 years old. In total he has now done 120 WC's including being #8 in his last 2017. He has won 20 WC and gotten 6 599 points which is most in the history among the male. Three times he has won the European Championship and twice the World Championship*. Overall, the 159 cm tall could be considered the best ever male IFSC competitor. *In 2005 he won the semifinal but his coach did not know the changed the isolation time so he was not allowed to compete. Instead he saw most topping out the final route a way too easy route! Eddie Fowke - The Circuit Climbing

Here is the Top-10 in the IFSC history based on World Points where also World Cup wins and World Champion titles have been added. As can be seen only three male made the list and this is because more female have done both Lead and Boulder and that the male WC wins are more spread out, especially in bouldering. Based on this, Kilian Fischhuber's 21 WC Boulder sticks out. It should be noted that Angela Eiter finished her career only 26 years old. 7 451 Mina Markovic SLO: 22 WC wins+0 WCH (2 Podiums) 6 751 Akiyo Noguchi JPN: 18 + 0 (4) 6 672 Jain Kim KOR: 27 + 1 (3) 6 599 Ramon Puigblanque ESP: 20 + 2 (2) 6 329 Jakob Schubert: 18 + 1 (2) 6 130 Kilian Fischhuber AUT: 21 + 0 (2) 5 968 Muriel Sarkany BEL: 20 + 1 (4) 5 759 Sandrine Levet: 22 + 1 (2) 5 224 Anna Stöhr AUT: 22 + 2 (2) 5 116 Angela Eiter AUT: 25 + 4 (0) It should be mentioned that the Boulder WC started in 1999 and in general there has been less Boulder WCs which makes it easier for the modern generation to make the list. The Lead WC started in 1989 and in the early years there were less competitions. Robyn Erbesfield-Raboutou should have been much higher up in the list if there would have been as many WCs in the early 90-ies. She won 37 % of the WCs she did and made it to the podium 74 %. Only Janja Garnbret beats this win 50 % wins and 88 % podiums and Liv Sansoz and Suzi Good are very close with 35 % wins and 73 % podiums respectively 32 and 74 %. Liv was world champion three times and Suzi twice. Among the male, Adam Ondra is together with Francois Legrand and Alex Chabot, the most superior in their time. Here are others that should be mentioned based on their overall track record. Note that Romain Desgranges is the oldest successful IFSC competitor peaking 35+ after having struggled for almost 15 years. The youngest WC winners are David Lama and Johanna Ernst who both won in their first Lead respectively Boulder WC being just 15 years old. 5 396 Sean McColl: 3 + 0 (1) 5 047 Jorg Verhoeven: 4 + 0 (1) 5 020 Maja Vidmar: 12 + 0 (2) 4 352 Romain Desgranges: 5 + 0 (0) 4 025 Dimitri Sharafutdinov: 12 + 3 (0) 3 875 Tomas Mrazek: 10 + 2 (1) 3 539 Francois Legrand: 17 + 3 (1) 3 500 Patxi Usobiaga: 6 + 1 (3) 3 122 Shauna Coxsey: 11 + 0 (0) 3 093 Adam Ondra CZE: 14 + 3 (8) 2 137 Janja Garnbret SLO: 13 + 1 (0) 2 989 Jerome Meyer: 11 + 0 (2) 2 946 Robyn Erbesfield USA: 14 + 1 (2) 2 548 Liv Sansoz 11 + 2 (1) 2 545 Alex Chabot: 21 + 0 (1) Sachi Amma, Martina Cufar, Rustam Gelmanov, Olga Bibik, Yulia Abramchuk, Isabelle Patissier, Shauna Coxsey and Yuji Hirayama can also be mentioned having also made great marks in the IFSC history. Part of the source of this gathering is Heiko Wilhelm's great book Beyond the Face. We will follow up with an overall male and female IFSC history ranking, based on their overall track record which will be subjective as the number of available competitions have varied over time. Later we will also make an individual presentation of the 8a the Top-10.

There are now 4 295 crags and 1 767 Boulder areas in the 8a database where you can get specific info and Tick list. This will help you to find the best climbs around the globe. If you would like to add more, just click on the link "Add" to the left and find the link. It takes 30 ascent to make the data base.

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Paweł Jelonek and Christof Rauch have done Dave Graham's super classic 8C, The Story of 2 World's in Cresciano. Actually, Christof did it twice as he later also did Dai Koyamada's low start 8C+, calling it 8C, where you practically start laying from the other side. "A dream became reality! When I climbed "The Dagger" for the first time I don't thought that I could climb this problem ever! But a few weeks ago I found some new microbetas and it felt so much easier. At first I made a team ascent of the normal start together with Pawel. Afterwards I checked out the lower moves with no big expectations. Sometimes it seems like this is the key to success and after a hell of a fight I stood on top of this amazing boulder and nabbed the second ascent. Thanks to the awesome crew!" Christof, working full time as an engine technician, is #1 in the 8a ranking game. (c) Damien Largeron Short interview with the 24 year old who the last four years have done 100+ boulders 8A and harder each year.