Bassa Mawem from France has won the speed stage in Tokyo with a time of 5.45. This means that he is the first speed climbing Olympic Record holder in history. In hot and humid conditions (still well above 30ºC), Mawem has basically secured a spot in the Finals on Thursday. It can be expected that even if he finishes last in the remaining stages, 400 points are enough to make it through. His brother Mickael finished third with a time of 5.95. If he gets a good result in bouldering, we might see both Mawem brothers in finals!
Among the favourites for the gold medal, Tomoa Naraski (JPN) had by far the best result, finishing in second with a time of 5.94. He skipped his second run, which meant that Adam Ondra (CZE) raced alone.
Jakob Schubert (AUT) achieved a new PB (6.70) on every run and placed 12th, Adam Ondra finished 18th, and Alex Megos (GER) placed 19th.
Overall there seemed to be a great atmosphere with many athletes achieving personal bests.
The boulder stage begins at 11AM Euro Time.


Results:
1 Mawem Bassa (FRA) 5.45
2 Narasaki Tomoa (JPN) 5.94
3 Mawem Mickael (FRA) 5.95
4 Khaibullin Rishat (KAZ) 6.19
5 Chon Jongwon (KOR) 6.21
6 Duffy Colin (USA) 6.23
7 Ginés López Alberto (ESP) 6.32
8 Piccolruaz Michael (ITA) 6.33
9 Cosser Christopher (RSA) 6.48
10 Coleman Nathaniel (USA) 6.51
11 Hojer Jan (GER) 6.63
12 Schubert Jakob (AUT) 6.70
13 Fossali Ludovico (ITA) 6.71
14 McColl Sean (CAN) 6.93
15 Harada Kai (JPN) 7.08
16 Rubtsov Aleksey (RUS) 7.23
17 O'Halloran Tom (AUS) 7.34
18 Ondra Adam (CZE) 7.46
19 Megos Alexander (GER) 7.47
20 Pan YuFei (CHN) 7.59

Sport Climbing will make its debut in the Olympics on Tuesday 3/8 at 5 pm (10 am Euro Time), with the Speed discipline. The starting order is on lane A reversed to the seeding (how and when they qualified to the Olympics) and on lane B with a stagger of 50 %. This means that first out will be Christopfer Cosser RSA and Jongwon Chon KOR. Last out, in both races, will be Tomoa Narasaki and Adam Ondra. For especially Narasaki, this is a big advantage as then he will know how much he needs to push in order to advance to one of the top positions.

It is the same for Ondra but advancing in the lower part of the ranking has not so much impact due to the multiplication format. Bassa Mawem starts in the second last heat, meaning he has the best starting position of the Speed specialists. In regards to the females, Janja Garnbret and Julia Chanourdie are last out and among the Speed specialists, Iuliia Kaplina has the best starting order.

1. Tomoa Narasaki 5 * 1 * 6 = 30
2. Adam Ondra 17 * 2 * 1 = 34
3. Jakob Schubert 8 * 3 * 3 = 72
4. Alex Megos 18 * 6 * 2 = 216
5. Alberto Ginés Lopéz 7 * 8 * 5 = 280
6. Kai Harada 6 * 5 * 11 = 330
7. Colin Duffy 10 * 9 * 4 = 360
8. Bassa Mawem 1 * 19 * 19 = 361

Not into the final
9. Michael Mawem 4 * 10 * 14 = 560
10. Alexsey Rubtsov 19 * 4 * 10 = 760

Here are some further details comments, who will make finals.

Offical Speed personal best rankings: (It should be noted that most of the athletes have made faster times during practice and non-official competitions.) (c) Jon Glassberg
5.53 Rishat Khaibullin KAZ
5.57 Bassa Mawem FRA
5.78 Ludovico Fossali ITA (5.65 in Italian Cup)

6.15 Tomoa Narasaki JPN (5.73 in Japan Nationals)
6.25 Mickael Mawem FRA (5.97 in Tokyo training)
6.29 Alberto Ginés López ESP
6.34 Kai Harada JPN
6.45 Jan Hojer GER
6.46 Colin Duffy USA
6.65 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
6.72 YueFei Pan CHI
6.72 Nathaniel Coleman USA
6.80 Jongwon Chon KOR
6.83 Christopher Cosser RSA
6.99 Sean McColl CAN
7.00 Jakob Schubert AUT
7.12 Tom O'Halloran AUS
7.27 Alexsey Rubtsov RUS
7.46 Adam Ondra CZE
7.57 Alex Megos GER

It is expected that most of the ones in the lower part of the ranking will set personal bests. It just might be that some of the ones that are not among the best in Lead and Bouldering will set a new PB with 0.5 seconds. Strategically, they just might have focused most on Speed during the last months as this probably have been their best chance to get a good multiplied overall score. Alexey Rutsov has chosen the other strategy having only done six suns in 2021 including three in Tokyo.

Jon Glassberg reports on Insta that Jakob Schubert prepares with the vest ice and wrist ice combo. It is predicted to be 30 degrees when the Speed qualification begins at 17.00 local time and later drop to 27 degrees at the end of the Lead qualification.

"Staying cool in 80+ F heat with suffocating humidity might be the difference between making finals or going home empty handed. Would be shocked if this guy didn't make the finals..."

Daniel Gajda is the official IFSC photographer. We asked him for some comments of his impressions and who has looked strong in the preparation, including in Speed. We also got a picture of Toma Narasaki.

"Everybody looks fit and prepared! Everybody seems very psyched to be here and ready to compete! I mean Janja and Tomoa look like they are absolutely dominant in bouldering. I believe Tomoa is running sub 6 seconds and Alberto is running a lot of sixes. Janja and Miho are both pretty speedy now as well"

Jon Glassberg, 8a member who has done 8C, reports also with pics through his Insta and we got some further comments.

"We have been at the wall every day and shooting the whole process. It’s amazing. It feels like a new era for climbing and a huge international celebration of our sport.

Pretty much everyone you would expect to be in good form is looking strong and most people have come a long way with speed climbing times. Lots of sub 8sec times in practice for the men very consistently and women were looking fast as well. Two Russians and 1 polish competitor did not attend training so we were not able to get a good read on them…

It’s really interesting since so much time has passed since qualifying for the Olympics in 2019 how people have handled an extra year of training and maintaining peak fitness. Some have injuries, some are looking very fit, overall it’s been a wild ride but very exciting to let the world in on how cool climbing is."

Speed: 10.00 Euro Time - 17.00 Tokyo Time (GMT+9)
Bouldering: 11.00 Euro Time - 18.00 Tokyo Time
Lead: 14.10 Euro Time - 21.10 Tokyo Time

Wednesday 4/8 - Women's qualification
The same schedule as above

IFSC has put together a list Where to watch Sport Climbing at the Olympic Games 2020

Katie Lamb has repeated Daniel Woods’ Jade 8B+ in RMNP after some seven sessions and she is #4 in the female ranking game." I came to Colorado with weak fingers but a strong mind. I knew I could ramp with the moon cycle and then it would be my jah day on Jadé. So heppy! Holy shit. A final gift from the alpine. Battling another crimping testpiece with duke... special mems." The picture is from a screenshot from a video published on her Insta. (c) Duke Lettieri, who sent it a couple of days ago.

Several of the Speed specialists have skipped all or most of the World Cups in 2021. Probably, they have never trained and focused on Speed as much as in the last year. At the same time, we have seen several male world records and very fast times by the females, and most have set PBs. When it comes to the lower-ranked in Lead and Bouldering, it is easiest and fastest to progress in Speed. Almost all guys have pushed their personal best to at least 6.5 seconds and for the females, many have done below 8.5 during practice.

On the other hand, making a false start on the first run means that you are disqualified also for the second run so most will make sure to wait more than 0.1 seconds after the signal before they start. If you start earlier than 0.1 seconds after the signal, you will automatically be disqualified. This is kind of strange as there is, as opposed to in for example running 100 meters or swimming, no randomness in when the signal comes. Instead, the starting signal has rhythmic pre-signals which make it possible to predict exactly when the signal is coming - hence, it should be feasible to climb before 0.1 seconds after the signal without cheating.

Here are some examples of best-case scenario happenings that would showcase sport climbing and make also non-climbers watching future World Cup live-streaming.

Janja Garnbret doing a triple dyno in Bouldering swinging out facing the camera could become one of the highlights of the Olympic. This clip would be shown over and over again in television and would quickly get 10 million views on YouTube.

If she later in the final is the only female topping out, she could be crowned one of the very big stars in Tokyo, especially if she is Top-2 in Speed.

For the males, one best case scenario could be if the last climber out needs to Top out faster in order to win overall. Imagine Adam Ondra pushes hard and screams his way to the Top making some extreme knee-drops, and tops out one second faster.

In Speed, there will be new world records set in the qualification heat where two Speed specialists run neck on neck.

In bouldering, the setters create boulder where the climbers face the camera doing spectacular moves and the last guy out secure the win on the last boulder.