With the Tokyo Olympics starting in 3 days, there's not much time left to join our new prediction game! Pick your top 5 male and female climbers, try to predict the outcome of the different disciplines, and collect points for every correct prediction. Once the official results are announced, each answer and ranking you predicted correctly will earn you 100 points and one ticket towards the raffle. If you are among the participants with the most points, you will be entered into the raffle for the adidas grand prize. All participants receive a one-month Vertical-Life Premium voucher, providing you with an extensive digital guidebook library, just in time for a summer road trip!

Vadim Timonov has done his third 8C in less than two weeks in Rocklands, Spray of Light. (c) Juliet Leonova

“I hate this boulder because my fingers don't fit into the crack. the main difficulty was in the first two moves. Finally, this battle is over after 3 sessions spent.

Including also three 8B+’, out of which Oliphants Dawn in just 15 min, and the flash of The Guest list 8B it should be one of the most impressive two weeks tick lists ever achieved in Rocklands.

Eliska Adamovska, who got the silver in the Euro Championship last year, won in Briancon after a great fight. Runner-up was Natalia Grossman meaning she got her seventh World Cup podium 2021.

Among the male, Stefano Ghisolfi won ahead of Dmitrii Fakirianov and Martín Stranik, after having done a remarkable save. As he failed to reach a hold, he basically pressed his hand against the wall creating compression on a huge volume.

It should be mentioned that the route setters have created possibly the most 3-D routes every creating many different solutions and drama from the beginning. One reason why nobody came close to the top, could be poor conditions due to the rain. (c) Jan Virt/IFSC

Irina Kuzmenko, #3 in the Euro Bouldering Championship in 2019, has done her third 8B in 2021, The Arch in Rocklands.

“Last trip in 2019 I did all the moves in one session and did not try to send it. This year just came and did it on my seventh attempts from the start. Hard topout, nice moves :) so happy I managed it quickly! Definitely came back stronger.

What is next? I’m working on Monkey Wedding (8B+). It is super hard but it feels I can do it :), maybe not this trip but still.

I did the first easiest part in one session and I am working on the hardest and the longest move in the second part. Hard to do it in a stable way but I believe it possible!

Stefano Ghisolfi and Sean Bailey scored 42+ after having touched the final jug but Ghisolfi was ranked #1 after the semi, due to countback. If they will get an identical score also in the final, Ghisolfi will win. Nine males, ranked #5 - 13, got within one hold and basically, it was a difficult clip that made the difference who was going to the final. A good strategy was to skip the clip which later forced some to start down climbing.

Among the girls, we saw five tops not counting Alex Totkova who was timed out. Natalia Grossman, who won the qualification, continued smiling her way up and is ranked #1 after the semifinal. In total, Slovenia got three girls into the final Top-8. The male final starts at 19.30 tomorrow Sunday followed by the female. Complete results

Earlier this week in Chamonix, nine females topped the semifinal route and tonight in Briancon, we saw five female tops. As a matter of a fact one more girl topped out in each event but they were timed out. Too many female tops or tied scores have been a problem for many years for females and one of the reasons for this is the lack of female IFSC route setters.

I have previously many times said that the commentators do a great job but that they lack digital live scoring. Furthermore, they do not focus on who and what is needed to make it to the final. The only Olympian in Briancon, Alberto Gines Lopez, climbed very high and it looked like he was among the best, having secured a spot in the final. 15 seconds later, a ranking is published and the commentator says that Alberto did not make it to the final. He is saved by his sidekick who says he was #4. - Ignore what I just said, Alberto is in the final.

I wanted to give this example in order to say that if not even the commentator understands what is happening live, this is something IFSC must organize quickly, also for the semis. What would be helpful is also that every fifth hold would be marked with a big visual number. Once there are few climbers left, there must be a digital presentation on what is needed to make it to the final. I am afraid I also need to say we saw some bad clipping positions for both the male which in the end had an impact on the results. Lastly, we and the commentators miss a clock on the screen. Alex Totkova topped but was not awarded the top which the commentator initially could not explain.

Getting stronger is an awesome feeling - especially when it can be measured, like on a hang board. The dilemma is that the biggest gain is not coming from muscular development but instead through intra-muscular fibre recruitment that quickly will disapear. A hangboard session will basically teach a higher percentage of your muscle fibers to switch on - but within a couple of resting days, most of the gained recruitment will switch off again.

Let us say you make a short bouldering session that you finish with trying to measure you maximal three-finger open crimp. Then you continue bouldering for a month, meaning that you will be able to measure some strength progress. If you on the other hand skip bouldering and only do one (1) hangboard or campus session, you will in fact be able to measure a bigger gain.

The reason for this is simply that although your muscle fibres have not grown after one hangboard session, you will have taught your muscles how to activate more of their fibers. Another twist is that if you only focus on a certain grip, like three-finger open hand, you will at the same time loose some of your strength on open hand or open crimp in the very short run, as the recruitment coordination of the other two gripping positions will drop.

On the other hand, facing a crux move which you cannot do may just require some recruitment training. How to temporarly get 100% stronger in 30 minutes

A total of 83 athletes from 14 countries participated in the Paraclimbing event in Briancon. France dominated getting four golds. Full report on IFSC (c) Jan Virt

Andrea Gennari Daneri from Pareti Magazine has helped out with some comments from Alfredo Webber, who just did his second 9a, Pure Dreaming in Arco. Adam Ondra made the FA of it in 2018. The 51-year-old and 159 cm tall did his first 9a in 2017. (c) Giacomo Tonoli

"When I bolted Pure Dreaming in February 2017 I didn't think I would be able to climb this line; I did not even imagine that I would have made almost 400 attempts spread over 3 and a half years of ups and downs, fingers open, desperate attempts at 35 degrees, with the cold, with the rain, days where logic led not even to leave home. Surprisingly, given the temperatures not exactly at the top, yesterday I managed to climb this line.

Thanks to Alessandro "Classe" Corradini for the endless belaying and his patience. I am also happy that staring at my ascent there was a talent of the new generations Andrea Chelleris (12) with his parents whom I thank for the cheering and for the video. I think that soon the next Pure Dreaming climber will be Andrea."

Alfredo's comments from 2017, when he did his first 9a are still interesting. "I’m close to 50 years old and now I work full time in a quarry, five days a week, 8 hrs a day. I wake up at 7 am, breakfast, then a 20 km drive to the quarry. Back home at 6 pm. Two days a week I have training on my wall at home. It’s a 1h 30’ work, basically long sequences, with intervals of some harder moves; then some hangs on crimps. When I’m projecting something hard for Sunday I have to rest on Friday and Saturday, otherwise, I get weak. I’m less powerful than 20 years ago, but now I know myself better and I manage better my energies."

The male Olympic qualification starts on August the 3rd. We reached out to Jakob Schubert, one of the favourites to get a medal. He explains that when it comes to rationale for skipping the last two World Cups, this was mainly because after the successful World Cup in Innsbruck he felt a bit exhausted and had a sore neck. With the first place in the pocket - with all big names competing- Jakob felt confident enough to focus on the recovery towards the Olympic Games. Schubert vlog from Innsbruck.

What is the focus on the last training before the Olympics?
I will have four more lead sessions (around 4-5 hours each) and four more bouldering sessions (around 3-4 hours each) over the eight last climbing days until leaving. Speed is mostly done before bouldering for 1-2 hours. My training is not super different than normal, I try to get strong in all 3 disciplines. This week it’s still hard sessions, next week it’s all about getting a good feeling and feel ready mentally.