Jonathan Flor reports on Insta reports that he has done Adam Ondra's La Planta de Shiva 9b in Villanueva del Rosario, after working on it for ten weeks. The Spaniard has previoulsy done 38 routes 8c+/9a and harder and he calls this his hardest ever. "The continuation, the motivation and the support of those around me have been the three key factors to be able to send this route." (c) Maragda Gabarre

The 24-year-old finished a five-year intensive competition career in 2018, being #23 in the Boulder World Championship in Innsbruck. He has previously also done a handful of 8C's.

Alex Megos reports on Insta that he has done 15 routes 8c to 9a in Turkey, including four FAs as well as Turkish Haircut 9a. " Thanks. It took 13 days of climbing and I'd say the best crag was Çitdibi. Hopefully more strong climbers will get psyched to go there in the future to repeat some routes and do more first ascents!" (c) Jan Novak

The potential in Turkey seems huge, here is a recent article, Citdibi - A new hardcore Mecca..

"The IOC Executive Board also agreed to add Boulder & Lead and Speed events to the programme, bringing the total number of medal events for Sport Climbing at Paris 2024 to four, two more than at Tokyo 2020. The number of participating athletes will grow to 68 for Paris 2024, a significant increase from the 40 that will compete at Tokyo 2020 next August. " More info at IFSC

In practice, this could mean that 18 males and 18 females will compete in a Combined Lead and Boulder format, as well as there, will be a separate Speed event with 16 males and 16 females in Paris. Another option is 22 respectively 18 but that would mean that the qualification will take a very long long time for Lead/Bouldering in comparison to the Speed qualification.

Giorgio Tomatis, who did his first 8c+ when he was 14-years-old and last year was #3 in the Euro Championship, has done Cobra Reale 8c+/9a in Andonno. (c) Carlo Pena

"It is a route that is a link-up of Cobra and Anaconda. To join these two routes you have to make a fairly hard traverse and then end up on the hard part of Anaconda. It was freed by Stefano Ghisolfi with the 8c+/9a grade."

Kim Marschner, who did his first 9a this summer, has done the Dreamtime in Cresciano. The classical Fred Nicole test-piece put up in 2001 as the first 8C in the world but it was later considered 8B+ until a hold broke down. "Such a classic! 8B+, 8C I can't tell. Maybe low end 8C. The left heel hook drove me crazy. Needed one lucky Go where the hook stuck and I climbed it to the end in my third session. Did the far lock off from the crimp." Video on his Insta.

Yesterday, Marscher was in German television in the Nina final where he was runner up after Alex Wurm, meaning he also lost Euro 25 000 in prize money.

"I started Ninja because of Moritz Hans. He was also a comp climber until he retired three years ago. He asked me to join his team at Team Ninja Warrior two years ago. In the same year, I also competed for the first time at the normal Ninja Warrior Germany and became second after Alex Wurm. Last year I injured my foot by trying the Mega Wall. It is 5,5m high and I slipped off the lip and fell all the way down. So I finished the stage and also the next stage on the same day but the next day I went to the doctor and he said I have a torn ligament. So I couldn’t keep on.

This year I made it safely through the qualification and semis. In qually there was the power tower for the first time. The two fastest from every qualification (there where 6 qually's) competed against each other in that power tower. The one who was faster was straight in finals and won 5000€. I won. So in finals I started and came the furthest but there where still three to come. I fell at the last obstacle the flying bar before the mount Midori Yama. So Alex was the last to come and made it one jump further than me so I became second again. No money for the second place. First got 25.000€"