Chris Cosser has made it to Tokyo by winning the Africa Championship. His best discipline is Speed where he did 6.87 although having just trained it more or less for two hours a week for six months. Until 2018, when he finished high school, he just climbed three times a year. (c) City Rock

"Once school finished I started to climbing 5 times a week at CityROCK Johannesburg where I really started to push my training as the Olympic goal became a focus. Since then I’ve been working toward the dream and kept trying to grow in the sport. Training in South Africa is difficult as the facility’s don’t currently cater for high-end training. I’ve spent a few months travelling around Europe both for competitions and training. In those months I truly understood what’s required to close the gap between Africa and the rest of the world. Now my objective is to do just that. The Olympics is the next set.

Speed is quite a cool one for me because it is homologated around the world which makes it even for everyone training it. Unlike the other 2 disciplines, South Africa is very far behind in terms of ability but with speed we are competitive, is it exposures or talent? For my personal speed training, I’ve just put hours in on the wall and have watched other athletes to see how they have trained speed."

The 20-year-old is hoping to move to Innsbruck in order to prepare for the Olympics. Last year, he participated in eleven Euro competitions placed #57 at his best among the seniors and #30 in the Speed World Championship among the juniors. "I’m also realistic about my goals for the OG." In any case, Cosser seems to be a talented Speed climber that should have chances to become Top-6 in Speed.

There are now 6 million star rated ascents in the 8a database, added by 85 000 members. Frankenjura and Fontainebleu have 221 000 respectively 154 000 recorded ascents and in practice, you can find info and comments on practically almost all crags, sectors and climbs in the world. There are endless possibilities to filter your climbs by grade and season etc. You can also become a moderator and help us to improve the database but in reality, with every climb you log, you interact with the climbing community creating better possibilities to find more and better climbs around the world!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

In total Adam Ondra spent 44 days in the Margalef and Oliana out of with 15 days was spent working and trying Perfecto Mundo 9b+.

Loic Zehani has done his 9a #20, UFO faire XXL in Calanques. "It is a connection between "UFO" 8c (one of the first 8c in France, bolted by Fred Roulhing) and "XXL" 8c +. You have to do all the hard part of "UFO" and then the bouldery crux of "XXL" with a little rest in between. It took me 5 days. I fell 3 times on the last hard movement. It's a very physical route. I think it's a 9a especially since the bouldery section is harder following the breakage of a little part of a hold. You can watch a try on my Instagram where I fall in the last movement."

Solveig Korherr has done her seventh 8c in 2020, Blue Line in Geyik bayiri. (c) Jon Shen "Two days. First Female Ascent. Ceusienne Berlin style rock after 20 meters of easier tufa approach. Happy that I was able to cram two fingers into some of the tiny pockets. Quite atypical of Geyikbayiri."

So how many climbers are around? What about Covid-19 restrictions and how long will you stay?
Turkey has been great so far! It’s getting very busy now especially with the holidays starting, so there are quite a few climbers around. It’s hard to tell because there a lot of different campgrounds and I’m in a smaller one but probably around 100 climbers. Tourist can do everything, there are no restrictions for us. I will probably stay here till mid of January.

Aidan Roberts made his breakthrough at the world scene at the end of this summer. During six weeks, he made six FA's 8B+ to Superpower 8C+. Lattice Training got his breakthrough on film and Tom Randell gives us more insight.

"Aidan is extremely intelligent/academic but at the same time climbing super hard and also crazy humble about it all... I'm going to have to shout about it for him 😂. He's studying at top UK university in a maths degree and so has to balance this with climbing performance. A kid with many things on his plate!

This film follows Aidan repeating multiple 8Bs to then establishing first ascents all the way up to 8C and 8C+ with Superpowers and Outliers. Whilst you all know these grades have been climbed before elsewhere, you may not know the context of Aidan and the Lakeland grading - he's not soft and neither are the grades! One of his FAs from Colorado established previously (Railway, 8C) has been tried by some of the world's best boulderers and yet has only had a single repeat by Matt Fultz..."

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Erin Sterkenburg, who was #33 and #48 in the Youth World Championship last year, and Christoffer Cosser have qualified to Tokyo 2021. In the African Championship, Erin was totally superior winning all six stages meanwhile it was a closer race for Christoffer.

Erin: "I started training at the end of 2019 for Africa Cup, having qualified earlier in the year, as the comp was scheduled for March 2020. Sadly, one week before the comp was supposed to happen, it was cancelled due to Covid-19. South Africa went into lockdown and this was a difficult time for everyone, for me specifically as an athlete without access to a climbing wall. Once lockdown ended and the comp was rescheduled for December it gave me something to work towards and I was super psyched to be able to train and climb again. During training motivation was sometimes low as at times we were unsure if Africa Cup would even happen.

During lockdown I was quite restricted with what training I could do because I don’t have a home wall, so I tried to work on some weaknesses like power. In general I climb about five days a week and I have been doing a lot of comp simulation leading up to Africa Cup. It’s quite surreal at the moment, it hasn’t really sunk in, but I am so thankful to everyone that has helped me get where I am right now. In the coming months, I will try my best to train as hard as I possibly can to be ready for Tokyo."