Vladislav Deulin and Anouck Jaubertwon the Xiamen Speed World Cup and got also the overall title. Reza Alipourshenazandirfar was second although he only competed in five events and as a matter of a fact, another three guys in the Top-10 overall did also skip at least two comps. It seems only seven six guys competed in all seven events. Among the female, ten girls competed in all events. Noteworthy is that Jan Hojer sat a personal best with 7.28. The Japanese successful Lead climbers did have to skip Speed due to the changes in the schedule. Complete results

Reino Horak, former national coach for Sweden and now for Norway, has written an open letter to IFSC which he says sums up the overall opinion of both athletes, coaches and even some of the officials. Fairness of the athletes was lacking. "In the end, Xiamen turned out to be a good World Cup but for many athletes it was an anti-climactic event and IFSC needs to guarantee and work out guidelines so this won't happen again, especially with Tokyo 2020 ahead. Outdoor venues need to have a better plan for bad weather meaning that more protection on the sides as well as the top is essential. If anyhow a similar situation occurs, IFSC needs to assure the athletes that sportmanship and fairness are their highest priority. Some male climbers did not get a fair chance due to changing conditions in the semi and some female were not allowed to climb at all after the qualification. Imagine training hard and invest time and money to fly to Xiamen. In the female qualification you end #14 but due to a cancelled semifinal, after eight starters, you were not allowed to go for your final onsight challenge. Instead, you watch a final with 13 girls who all topped both qualification routes, followed by a final with 8 males who all did an earlier full semifinal. If all 26 female participating athletes had created the final, which would not have made the final take much longer time, everyone would have been pleased including the spectators."

Due to rain and strong wind, the semi final in Xiamen has been postponed to Sunday 12.30 GMT+8, 06.30 Euro time. Live streaming link. During the qualification, it was almost a storm and some climbers actually said it made it harder to climb. The Speed qualification will take place indoors just before the Lead semifinal. The Lead final will start 18.50 GMT+8, 12.50 Euro time.

"The North Face MoonBoard Masters will take place simultaneously from four iconic MoonBoard locations around the world and streamed live online. With teamwork at its forefront, the competition will pitch five famous duos against each other in a MoonBoard battle of strength and skill." THE TEAMS: D Woods & K Condie: The Cliffs - New York City, USA A Megos & M Hayes: The Foundry - Sheffield, UK. R Gelmanov & K Kadic: Sharma Climbing - Barcelona J Chon & M Nonaka: Crux Climbing Gym - Japan T Narasaki & A Noguchi: Crux Climbing Gym - Japan The competition format is not set yet but what we know is that soon they will add points to their log-books and it will be identical to the 8a scoring system. Moon Board Masters

Alex Megos continues his rampage and has done another two 8c+, Livin' Astro and LivinAstro Glide in Rumney. During the last two months he has now done eight routes 8c+ to 9a+ as well taking the silver in the Euro Bouldering Championship and finished #8 in Arco Lead WC, where he won the semifinal. What about stepping it up and going to Flatanger and Oliana and what about doing more WC Comps and the Olympics? I'm not planning on going to Flatanger any time soon. I'd like to go to Oliana though at some point since I haven't been there at all till now. That won't happen till next year though. Too much going on at the moment. Regarding the Olympics, that's still way too far away to make any decision and I haven't done enough comps yet to see if that's something I could enjoy doing again. So for next year my plan is to do as many WC's as I can to see I could imagine completing seriously again. I won't be able to do all the circuit because of other projects I've got too next year but I hope I'll be able to fit the majority of the WC's close by into my schedule. Concerning the Olympics I'm also not sure about the format yet. I haven't trained or done the Speed route yet and at the moment I'm more focused on lead and bouldering, although I do work on my general climbing speed though with my two trainers Patrick and Dicki from the Kraftfactory because we think it's something that will improve my climbing in general. And maybe that will result in a few speed climbing trainings I'll do at some point. As for now I'm not yet in the position to make a properly thought through decision.

Tomoa Narasaki, #2 in the Bouldering World Cup, has started his preparation towards the Olympics and with very limited training he set new standards in Wuijang last weekend. He was #2 in Lead and got 7.85 in Speed. This weekend he will compete in the two disciplines again in Xiamen. (c) Eddie Fowke "I have trained Speed three times. I do endurance training every winter. My target of World Cup in Wuijang was to reach the final. The final route was simple and powerful, so it was good for me and I had no pressure. I was surprised with my results and it made me excited to train lead. I would like to get first place as soon as possible."

Alex Megos reports on Facbook with a picture from Melissa Le Neve that he has done Jaws II 9a+ in Rumney. It was originally 8c but then a hold broke and Vasya Vorotnikov made the FA in 2007 after 35 sessions. Megos did the sixth ascent out of which 9a also have been suggested. "Wow! That went a bit faster than expected! I checked it out twice and didn't really find any beta that seemed to work although I tried about 5 different possibilities."

Petzl comes with more safety instructions for belaying. Can anybody explain why you are not allowed to give out slack and take in with the same method?

Four days ago, an article in regards Santa Linya was published in a Spanish newspaper. Some archaeologists say that they have found new things in the cave and they want to ban climbers from climbing. Although no climbers have been contacted, a petition have been set up asking climbers to sign up.