IFSC has an athlete commission including eleven of the very best World Cup climbers. "The commission provides a channel for communication between athletes and the IFSC Board." Now it turns out that the representatives were just informed about the IFSC Olympic suggestions one week before the World Championship without any possibility to communicate their opinions. If the best athlete does not agree to the format and boycott the Olympic, climbing will surely be kicked out in 2024. Why do IFSC run an athlete commission if they do not bother to listen to their elected representatives?

In Bouldering finals, the starting order is reversed in comparison to the semifinal Top-6 results, i.e. the first guy out in the final was the last guy to qualify. However, the competitor with the worst semi result is normally the best in the final. In the 12 events since 2007, the athlete starting on fresh holds has won five golds and three silver. Beside fighting with worse friction, the last person out has to deal with much more pressure. In Paris, Akiyo Noguchi was #1 before the last Boulder but she had to listen to the arena exploding when Petra Klinger did it. Later Miho Nonaka finished it as well and by then Akiyo did very well know that she was no longer going to be #1. Instead, she did know that she had to top to get the gold. Suddenly, the winner of the qualification and semifinal, who had also performed best on the three first Boulders, could not handle the pressure. In reality, only one of the girls had worse results on the last Boulder problem. Already in 2007, I started to talk about this "upside-down" result since I witnessed it live in Aviles and spoke to Daniel Dulac. He had won the qualification and in the semi he was the only person onsighting all four problems. In the final, he was dead last with no tops. Daniel said it was just awful to sit and listen to the others top out making the spectators go wild and as a matter of a fact, this was his last competition. What I am putting emphasis on sre five golds and three silvers out of twelve sets of medals. IFSC has to deal with this and find a solution.

Tomoa Narasaki, the overall World Cup 2016 winner, has won the gold in a spectacular show in the World Championship in Paris. Last year, the 20-year-old was #30 in the Boulder World Cup and #4 in the Youth Worlds. The Japanese started the 2016 season being #18 and #15 and then something clicked as his worst result in the last five WCs was #2. During the final in Paris he made quick work on the three Boulders. He only failed on the second Boulder, where it seemed he was hindered by his height. Adam Ondra, the double World Champion from 2014, was second, putting up a great show. The World Championship was actually his first Bouldering competition in 2016 and last year he was #6 on average, counting the last three WCs. Manual Cornu, who is currently second in the Combined after winning Speed at 7.83, did get the bronze. The French was actually leading after two problems and had one hand on the top of the third problem. On the fourth he fought so hard that he got a standing ovation. Noteworthy is that the winner, Narasaki, was last into the final and started first out. Since 2007, the guys starting first have gotten five golds and three silvers during eleven events.

Marcin Dzieński, who did win the three last Speed WCs and who was interviewed by 8a last week, is the new Speed World Champion. Actually, he was superior in all four rounds and amazingly, he was the fastest in the Final, 5.83, which was his fourth run in just about 40 minutes.

Petra Klingler found the key toe-hook on the fourth problem unintentionally and the emotions were just overwhelming. She gets her acts together and does a dynamic catch to the right stopping the pendulum by ending in the big cross. On topping out, she starts crying. - Mind blow! It is nothing in your head anymore. It is just like happiness going through your whole body... it does not matter what the ranking would be. It was just so much fun to climb this final. (Picture and comments from the very nice live-streaming). Last out was Akiyo Noguchi, who had onsighted two Boulders and had both hands on one problem, but she could not handle the pressure and she was #3. The silver was taken by Miho Nonaka, who was also #2 in the Boulder World Cup 2016. Complete results. It is noteworthy that Petra did not even make it to the semifinal in the last World Cup and she has just made it into the final once in 2016. The 24-year-old is like a late bloomer as she was not so successful in the Euro Youth Cups and it took her eight World Cup events to make it to the semifinal.

Based on the podium pictures, below are the Combined medalists and their overall result in Lead - Boulder - Speed. It should be mentioned that in the Combined calculation, only athletes doing all three disciplines are included. However, IFSC has not presented any results in Combined. 1. Sean McColl CAN 6 - 17 - 38 2. Manuel Cornu FRA 51 - 3 - 32 3. David Firnenburg GER 17 - 49 - 44 1. Elena Krasovskaia RUS 29 - 6 - 20 2. Claire Buhrfeind USA 7 - 24 - 41 3. Charlotte Durif FRA 13 - 26 - 33 How is it even possible not to present results in the discipline which is supposed to be Olympic in 2020? Should not IFSC give higher priority for this showing the direction for the athletes?

Yesterday, IFSC had an Olympic presentation for the athletes and coaches in Paris and most of the audience actually just shook their heads. In the suggested format 20 competitors should start with Speed, where four of them are knocked out. Then the remaining 16 continues to Boulder with some more cut offs before the big Lead final deciding on the medalists. The athletes and coaches were asked to make written comments and suggestions before the deadline of 25th September in regards to this knock-out format. When it comes to qualification, IFSC said that the decision of this part should be up tonational federations! Many critical comments and questions were raised. Jakob Schubert addressed some as well but he was interrupted by an IFSC representative asking: "Could you please present yourself?" IFSC explained that IOC had given the Olympic conditions: One set of medals, 20 participants, the World Champions in the three disciplines have to participate. Further more, there must be something in the form of a superfinal where the medalists are picked. IFSC did not want a calculated gold medal. The IFSC President, Marco Scolaris, said that it was very important for us to create a good show in order continue with climbing as an Olympic sport; hopefully with three sets of medals in 2024.

Elena Krasovskaia (16), who was #14 in the European Youth Bouldering Championship last month, was the big sensation making it into the Final with five big favorites. As she is #20 in Speed at 9.83, she is in the leading position to win the Combined. (c) Eddie Fowke 17:30-19:00 Bouldering Final Men 19:30 Awarding Ceremony 20:15-21:00 Speed Final Men 21:00-22:00 Lead Final Women 22:00 Awarding Ceremony

Janja Garnbret grabs the second last hold, slips of for a split second, takes it again and continues to the final hold. Once again a World Championship in Paris proved to be an amazing show. Anak Verhoeven actually topped earlier with a margin but as she had worse result in the semi, Janja is the winner, which was based on countback. In the junior events, Janja has been superior for many years. When she started to compete win the seniors in some WCs last year she was was mainly runner up. This year she started by winning the three first World Cups but in the two last events she was #3 and #5 before she got the biggest title in Paris.