"8 Professional / Elite climbers talk about Fear of Falling, 20m Falls, Skipping quickdraws, Falling on 9a Slabs and best tips for beginner Climbers." Featuring: Ghisolfi, Graham, Dufraisse, Nonaka and Bailey and more.

Being 15-years-old, Chaehyun Seo from Korea did her debut in the Lead World Cup, getting the silver after Janja Garnbret. The following four WCs in 2019, still being 15-years-old, she won and overall she got 480 points in comparison to Janja, as the runner-up, with 352 points. In the same year in 2019, she was #4 in the World Championship and this year, she was #2 in Lead in the Olympics as well as in the Kranj World Cup before winning in Moscow. In other words, her worst result out of eight is being #4, which in the history of IFSC, is the best ever. (c) Dimitris Tosidis/IFSC

Noteworthy is also that she did Bad Girls Club 8c+/9a being 14-years-old with her father, who is a climbing gym owner and have taken her on long rock climbing trips every year, commenting. "She climbs and trains after she gets out of school. Her training time is about 5hours a day when she does. I make her training plans and I make new climbing problems for her on the spray wall daily. I would like her to be a climber that truly joins climbing."

Last year she was #6 in an Ice World Cup after just having practised it for six days.

Chaehyun Seo (17) had topped all three routes coming into the final. Being last out she demonstrated climbing perfection and easily surpassed the crux where both Natalia Grossman and Laura Rogora fell at the same move, with Grossman getting the silver after getting there faster. Rogora had lost time having gone for a dynamic move three times but missed it but miraculously manage to hang on while she was falling three times. Fourth was Jessica Pilz who actually skipped hold #37 which Grossman and Rogora controlled and instead touched hold #38 before falling. It should be mentioned again that the route setting in Moscow has been spot on in all rounds for both the men and women in both Boulder and Lead.

1. Chaehyun Seo KOR Top (c) Dimitris Tosidis
2. Natalia Grossman USA 37
3. Laura Rogora ITA 37
4. Jessica Pilz AUT 36+
5. Brooke Raboutou USA 35+
6. Natsuki Tanii JPN 32+
7. Dinara Fakhritdonova RUS 32+
8. Salome Romain FRA 25+
Complete results

In yet another great spectacular show in Moscow, Jakob Schubert topped out and was ahead over Luka Potocar, who had also topped it, due to countback. Jakob had to fight his way up but had full control on the last dyno to the top which Luka just barely did. Last out was Hamish McArthur who just the last month had won two golds in the Youth World Champion. Taking a very long rest just five moves from the top, sitting in the sixth position, he started to move and the clock was ticking. With some ten seconds left, he went for the top jug but was like three cm short meaning he got the bronze.

Fourth was Martin Stranik, the silver medalist in Boulder World Championship in 2007, who had his best comp season ever being 31-years-old. Fifth was Tomoa Narasaki and sixth, Sebastian Halenke who actually found a no-hands rest just five moves from the top.

1. Jakob Schubert AUT Top (c) Dimitris Tosidis
2. Luka Potocar SLO Top
3. Hamish McArthur GBR 46+
4. Martin Stranik CZE 46
5. Tomoa Narasaki JPN 46
6. Sebastian Halenke GER 44+
7. Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN 44+
8. Stefano Ghisolfi ITA 34+
Complete results

Jakob Schubert has previously won the Lead World Championship in 2012 and 2018. Including also his 19 victories in Lead World Cups, he is the best male Lead climber in history.

” “I really had to fight hard on this route,” said Schubert. “I didn’t really like the technical part on the slab, I felt like I didn’t climb so well, but somehow I recovered. Obviously, I knew there was a top already, so I knew I had to give everything to reach the top hold. I still don’t know how, but I reached it!”

Hamish McArthur was the big sensation in the semi, being the only one topping. The 19-year-old who was #7 in Boulder in Moscow, has previously been #19 as his best in a World Cup but last month, he won both Lead and Boulder in the Youth World Championship also in Russia. Other than that, all the favourites made it to the final but Sasha Lehmann and William Bosi. Complete results

Among the female, the three top-ranked Chaehyon Seo, Natalia Grossman and Laura Rogora topped. The big names that missed qualifying to the final were; Eliska Adamovska, Alex Totkova, Lucka Rakovec, Viktoriia Meshkova and Mia Krampl. Complete results

It should be mentioned that the route setting was once again great as it has been for every round in both Lead and Boulder. On the other hand, the camera work was again poor where they often switched the camera from a climber fighting hard to the other climber checking the route from the ground.

Loic Zehani has done his fourth 9a+ FA in 2021, Anesthésie in Fetid Beach, which is a 60 move link up of old routes he has done. The 19-year-old, who did his first 9a in 2015, has done 35 routes 9a to 9b.

"Anesthésie is a resistance route on one and two fingers pockets. The feet are rare. It starts with "Corrida", crosses "Genocide", goes up in "H5N1" and crosses on the beautiful pillar of "Syndrome". "Corrida" is a 9a bolted and climbed by my father in 2010. It is very violent on the fingers. In 2019 it took me 6 sessions to get to the anchor and I found it hard! Note that there is still the possibility of "playing" again by starting with an 8a boulder or an 8b boulder in a roof with one-finger pockets."

Chaehyon Seo (17), who has been Top-3 in all of her previous seven World Cups, was the only athlete to top out both the qualification routes in Moscow. Natalia Grossman, Laura Rogora and Lucka Rakovec were runner-ups topping out one route each. Among the male, Tomoa Narasaki won the qualification ahead of Hamish McArthur and Kokoro Fujii, who was the only male topping a route. Complete results

1. Kokoro Fujii JPN 44
2. Tomoa Narasaki JPN 33
3. Manuel Cornu FRA 23 (2)
4. Alexsey Rubtsov RUS 23 (7)
5. Nimrod Marcus ISR 2 (9)
6. Anze Peharc SLO 2 (10)