Matt Fultz has done the FA of Polaris 8C in Reynold's Creek. Video on his Insta. The 29-year-old is defining the concept of being a late bloomer. For over ten years, he has had a steady slow progress which has speeded up the last 18 months when he did his first 8C. Just in 2020, Matt has done ten 8C and 8C+ and he is the new 8a ranking game #1. (c) Mike McClure More info to come.

As it stands, the Boulder qualification and semi, with 5 min max, put a great focus on who is the best doing a quick onsight of the problems. During some 45 seconds, the athletes are supposed to run from the isolation, find their Boulder, identify the starting holds and find out beta sequences as well the zone and top out strategy. In the end, it is about doing fast onsights, although called flashes, which has nothing in common with flashing boulders outside.

In the final, with 4 min max, the athletes have already seen the boulders together and have also shared ideas, meaning they can start climbing quicker.

The easiest solution for having the same format in all rounds, and to save time, is to simply show the boulders with topo/pictures in the isolation. This will also more promote the best and strongest boulderers and not the ones who quickest can find the sequences. Using the same format in all three rounds will also mean that the athletes interact more creating a more friendly isolation where the last guys in will spend up to one hour less time.

In practice, topos/pictures in the isolation will also mean that the setters can make the boulders harder and that we will see more interaction among the athletes in the ísolation.

Josh Ibbertson has just done Rainshadow 9a at Malham Cave where also his father James did his first 8c Bat route. "The whole process of climbing Rainshadow has been challenging but great. I've really enjoyed heading out climbing with my Dad, even on cold damp days, and working on the route with Toby, sharing beta and encouragement. I’m really looking forward to getting back into training and grit bouldering over the winter with an eye to get on some of Steve’s other test pieces at Malham and Kilnsey in the spring."

"When my kids were younger I had much less time to climb for myself: much of my time was taken up coaching juniors and belaying! Now my sons are older they can belay me and we train and climb together which is great. So over the last couple of years, I've climbed and trained much more and am making real gains." (c) Henry Giles

Nathan Michel is having his best bouldering year ever doing five 8B+' and now his second 8C, The Big Island in Fontainebleau. Video on his Insta. Until 2019, the 27-year-old had just done a total of three 8B+'.

"This year is a special one for me since I feel like I can finally start to express myself on the rock. I believe it comes from a few changes: - There is now around me a well-developed community of climbers that creates a strong emulation, making motivation and training easier,
- I seriously started proper training for bouldering again,
- I spend all of my free time climbing and go bouldering outside at every chance I get.

All this allowed me to finally climb a line I had been dreaming about for a long time: The Big Island. I had already tried it a few times three years ago, but I wasn’t strong enough at that time. In September, while listing on a paper my new goals for this year so as to plan my training, I included this boulder without hesitation. I then had two sessions in October that allowed me to refine my betas and work on the movements. I was close to sending it but conditions were far from perfect and I ended up being too tired to do it anyway. Though at the end of November, conditions looked like they were going to be excellent, so I planned another trip in Font. The first session allowed me to get back into the sequences and then, the morning after, I finally sent it on my second try of the day!"

Last year there was 120 male competing in the Munich Bouldering qualification. That meant that although two groups were used, the qualification lasted almost six hours as the athletes are allowed to spend five minutes on each of the five problems with five minutes rest in between. Besides being a marathon for all the volunteers the condition, due to temperature and humidity changes, could be changed.

By using four minutes intervals, as in both the semi and the final, you will save one hour but my suggestion is actually to reduce to three minutes as this would mean a total of almost 3.5 hours instead of six hours. As a matter of a fact, even if we increase to six minutes rest in between, we are still well below four hours duration. Furthermore, if we start on all five boulders at the same time and have six minutes rest, the total time will be three hours.

This would actually also mean that the setters would just need to set five boulders instead of ten, which also would save cost talking about building walls. Add to that also that the five boulders do not need to be set so straight up and so close to each other as it would have been for ten boulders.

Alternatively, adding a sixth boulder would increase fairness and could in fact save time as 54 guys would be finished in just 2 hours and 42 minutes. Furthermore, using two zones and a point scoring system, as have been presented before, I think is the most important subject when talking about fairness and action for both the athletes and the spectators.

1. Tomoa Narasaki JPN - Janja Garnbret SLO
2. Adam Ondra CZE - Miho Nonaka JPN
3. Jakob Schubert AUT - Akiyo Noguchi JPN
4. Bassa Mawem FRA* - Anouck Jaubert FRA*
5. Kai Harada JPN - Shauna Coxsey GBR
6. Alex Megos GER - Viktoria Meshkova RUS
7. Alberto Gines Lopez ESP - Laura Rogora ITA
8. Alexey Rubtsov RUS - Petra Klingler SUI
9. Jan Hojer GER - Brooke Raboutou USA
10. Rishat Khaibullin KAZ* - YiLing Song CHI*

*The most certain prediction in the Tokyo Olympics is that, due to the multiplication format, there will be a Speed specialist finishing #4 or #5. The Speed qualification winner will probably make it to the Top-8 final even if being dead last in Lead and Boulder. Among the female, with four Speed specialists and the African representant, it is actually possible that the Top-2 in Speed will make it to the final, meaning that there exists a "risk" for a Speed specialists bronze. Mathematically, including also some potential non-sportsmanship acting, the risk is actually rather big. It just takes that the #2 in Speed is like #16 in Boulder and #14 in Lead and she could advance to the final, as long as some of the best like Janja Garnbret, Miho Nonaka and Akiyo Noguchi are high ranked in all disciplines.

Another twist is that, from creating the best show, let us hope for Rishat Khaibullin making it to the final. He can challenge the speed-specialist although being ok also in Boulder. In the World Championship, he got the bronze and he can do it again if he is at least Top-2 in Speed.

Toby Roberts and Josh Ibbertson have done the classical Rainshadow 9a at Malham Cove. The excellent 35 meter route was put up by Steve McClure in 2003 and even Adam Ondra has said, "Honestly one of the best climbs I have done." Both Toby and Josh did Raindogs 8a, at age ten, which is the start of Rainshadow. Toby won the European Youth Boulder Championships and was 2nd in the European Youth Lead Championships in 2019.

"I broke my ankle in January and had worked really hard on my rehab and conditioning to be ready for the comp season." When the lockdown came, they built a Moonboard in the garden setting up Rainshadow as his goal. In October they started doing 10-hour roundtrips to Malham but the process was slow in the beginning. All in all, it took him some 20 sessions to send.

"As a climber, I think the most important thing to do is to climb. Climbing is about a lot more than being strong which can only take you so far. Footwork, hip flexibility, efficiency, reading sequences (particularly for comp climbing), improvising on the wall, making good decisions – everything improves with experience and repeatedly going through the process. For me, climbing has always been the most important part of training."

The 15-year-old's next goal is Hubble 9a (8c+) and then Rainman 9b, which has a different much harder finish than Rainshadow. In the long term perspective, he would like to compete in the Olympics. Long interview at Climber.co.uk and The BMC.co.uk. Toby's Insta has the full video of the send. More comments to follow from Josh and his father James (45), who did Bat route as his first 8c, the same day Toby sent his first 9a.

Brooke Raboutou, who will compete in Tokyo next year, and Natalia Grossman have done Prospectors 8A in St. Vrain. Brooke has done a total of 35 boulders 8A to 8B+ in 2020 and Natalia has sent 36 up to 8B. In the 8a ranking game, the 19-year-olds are #3 and #6 respectively.

Brooke: "Fun one! Feels so good to be back in CO and climbing on some real rock with the best of friends! Felt very hard to get by butt off the ground but once I did I sent the boulder lol." More on her Insta.
Natalia: "Such a fun boulder! Hard to pull your butt of the ground haha. First day back outside with my climbing buddy which of course means another send train!" More on her Insta.

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