Melissa Le Nevé, the retired World Cup climber who was #3 in the Boulder WC last year, reports on Instagram that she has done her first 8B+, Mécanique Élémentaire in Fontainebleau. (c) Fabian Buhl "Today I was able to send my hardest climb on the paper but mostly my hardest challenge in terms of reachy moves and mental side! After falling a while on the very last move I finally could stand on the top of "Mecanique Elementaire" 8b+."

Adam Ondra reported yesterday on Instagram with a picture by Javi Pec from a failed onsight attempt of Directa Cornualles 8c in Siurana that he has been sick in beds for some days. "Since then I have been recovering, but I am not back in the shape where I would like to be (and was). Sad to be almost leaving with all my projects untouched, but they will not run away." Anyway, Adam had time to redpoint Fabelita R2 9a and onsight two 8c's in Sadernes, Milenium and Magin el Mago. In total, the 24 year old has recorded 81 routes onsight 8c and harder which can be compared with the runner-ups who have done like a handful. He also did a "retro-onsight" of Le Concepte integrale 8c+. "I had tried the first 8b+ part 8 yrs ago."

Laura Rogora has during the last week done three 8c's including the FA of Ercole bolted by Cesare Giuliani in Collepardo. Yesterday she did the chipped route Crazy Horse skipping one of the chipped holds. To make the 15 year old's ascent event more impressive, she did it second go. (c) Lorenzo Russo "I understood all the moves quite quickly. I had to try a few times only one move because I didn't reach one chipped holds so I had to find another method on natural holds.

Melissa Le Nevé, bývalá úspešná pretekárka svetového pohára (minulý rok skončila na treťom mieste), oznámila na svojom Instagrame prelez svojho prvého 8B+, Mécanique Élémentaire vo Fontainebleau. (c) Fabian Buhl "Dnes sa mi podarilo preliezť môj papierovo najťažší boulder, ktorý bol výzvou hlavne kvôli dlhým krokom a po psychickej stránke! Po niekoľkých pádoch v poslednom kroku som sa konečne mohla postaviť na vrchol "Mecanique Elementaire" 8b+."

IFSC have decided that only the Top-6 will qualify to be in the finals in the Olympics. "For the Speed Final the concept of “Lucky loser” (7° and 8° ranked Athletes in the 1/8th finals) applies, as a quota of 6 does not allow the duel system." As the "Lucky Loser" has nothing to win, this system could create a sportsmanship dilemma as many of the athletes are friends. It might just be that the "Lucky Loser" competing against a good friend, who could get a medal, will not give 100 %. Further more, if a "Lucky Loser" makes it to the final or bronze final, such a run is of no interest for the competition. In fact, it would actually be smarter for a Top-6 finalist to go a bit slow in order to save energy. (We assume that the Combined ranking will only be based on the results of the Top-6.) Imagine how strange it would be for any of the 12 finalists, a hundred commentators and tens of millions of spectators to follow such a Olympic Speed final, where some athletes will not go 100 %. The simple solution for this is to include Top-8 to the final. Alternatively, have three lanes of Speed routes, where the two fastest qualify to the semifinals.

Melissa Le Neve, who retired from the WC scene last year being #3 overall, prepared for the CWIF 2017 by doing her first 8B+ in Fontainebleau. That worked out pretty nice as she was the only competitor to flash three problems. So why not go to Font again and try the first WC in Switzerland in three weeks? Alex Megos, who won CWIF also in 2015, has been climbing just easy the last two months due to an inflammation. Three days ago, the German said on Instagram, "I'll be at the CWIF again this weekend but unfortunately won't be able to compete due to a finger injury." He tried anyhow but after the semi he wrote, "Will see if I'll be able to climb tomorrow in semis. Depends how much my finger will be swollen..." In the semi, he did not make good progress on the first three boulders but managed to do the last slab. In the final it was actually the same story again but this time the slab was the third boulder. Runner-ups were Petra Klingler and Jongwon Chon and thirds were Michaela Tracy and Michael Piccolruaz. (c) Eddie Fowke

IFSC sa rozhodlo, že do olympijského finále postúpi Top 6 pretekárov. "Pre preteky na rýchlosť platí koncept "Lucky Loser" (7. a 8. v poradí postúpia do finále, kde bude dokopy 8 pretekárov), keďže pri počte šiestich nie je možné určite jasného víťaza formou duelu, ako je to zvykom." Keďže títo "lucky lúzri" nemajú čo získať, mohol by tento systém priniesť do súťaže dilemu, lebo viacerí z pretekárov sú kamarátmi. Môže sa takisto stať, že pretekár súťažiaci proti kamošovi, ktorý môže vo finále získať medailu, nedá do výkonu 100%. Ďalšou dilemou je fakt, že pokiaľ sa takýto pretekár dostane do semifinále či boja o bronz, je pre divákov závod omnoho menej atraktívny. V podstate by pre Top-6 finalistov bolo rozumnejšie ísť trochu pomalšie, aby ušetrili energiu. (Predpokladáme, že výsledok kombinovaného rebríčka bude založený na výsledkoch Top-6 pretekárov). Predstavte si, ako zvláštne by bolo pre každého z dvanástich finalistov, stovky komentátorov a desiatky miliónov divákov sledovať olympijské finále lezenia na rýchlosť, v ktorom finalisti nejdú na 100%. Jednoduchým riešením je mať v každom finále osem pretekárov. Alternatívou je mať tri línie pretekárov na rýchlosť, z ktorých sa dvaja najrýchlejší kvalifikujú do semifinále.

Melissa Le Neve opustila okruh svetového pohára minulý rok ako bronzová a na CWIF sa pripravila prelezom jej prvého 8B+ vo Fontainebleau. Zdá sa, že to bolo veľmi dobré, keďže bola jedinou pretekárou, ktorá flashla tri bouldre. Prečo teda neskúsiť ísť do Fontáča a o tri týždne sa zúčastniť prvého kola svetového pohára vo Švajčiarsku? Víťaz CWIF 2015, Alex Megos, liezol posledné dva mesiace zľahka kvôli zápalu. Pred tromi dňami na Instagrame povedal: "Tento týždeň budem na CWIF, ale nanešťastie nemôžem kvôli zraneniu prsta súťažiť." Napriek tomu to vyskúšal a po kvalifikácii napísal: "Uvidíme, či budem môcť zajtra v semifinále liezť. Záleží na tom, ako moc mi napuchne prst..." V semifinále sa mu v prvých troch bouldroch moc nedarilo, no vyliezol posledný položený problém, a podobne tomu bolo aj vo finále, kde bol položený tretí boulder, a nakoniec súťaž vyhral. Druhí boli Petra Klingler a Jongwon Chon, tretí Michaela Tracy a Michael Piccolruaz. (c) Eddie Fowke