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Eliska Adamovska was the last female out as she won the qualification. If she tops out and is faster than Viktoriia Meshkova, Stasa Gejo will get the ticket to Tokyo. The clock is ticking but all the way from the start she is not as fast but even when Eliska tops out one minute slower, nobody knows who made it Tokyo (besides the guys keeping track of the time). After some 40 seconds, the Russian coaches start to scream and the camera shows Meshkova starting to understand what happened. (c) Nikita Tsarev

Previous in the week, she won Gold both in Lead and Speed. Based on her previous World Cup results, this must be the biggest sensation ever in competition climber. Last year she did eleven Boulder and Lead WCs and the 20-year-old's best results were #16.

Dmitry Sharafutdinov, the Russian training coach who has won three World Championships and who is famous for mainly done pull-ups as his training regime, says that probably hard physical training 20+ hours a week in her apartment during the two months lockdown is the best explanation.

"The secret of her success is probably the spring lockdown. Everyone was at home. Communication only online. I wrote a training program. At home, Vika performed an enormous amount of physical training. Like me in my best years. 5 times a week, for 4-5 hours. (But the exercises are a secret.) Fingerboard was done regularly. But that was not the main one. Rather, the emphasis was on training large muscles. We used a little bit of everything. But no matter how strange it may sound, I took a lot from figure skating and alpine skiing. Not much with weights, mostly with her own weight.

A month ago, a test for coronavirus gave a positive result and she isolated herself. The disease was mild. She was under the supervision of a doctor of the Russian national command team. As soon as the symptoms went away she began training. Online first, and after negative tests five times at the climbing gym. It's hard for me to say now what played a decisive role. Perhaps rested."

1. Viktoria Meshkova RUS 2 - 6 - 1 = 12
2. Stasa Gejo SER 3 - 1 - 5 = 15
3. Eliska Adamovska CZE 8 - 4 - 2 = 64
4. Patrycja Chudziak POL 1 - 8 - 8 = 64
5. Chloe Caulier BEL 5 - 2 - 7 = 70
6. Elena Krasovskaia RUS 4 - 3 - 6 = 72
7. Hannah Meul GER 6 - 5 - 4 = 120
8. Molly Smith-Thompson GBR 7 - 7 - 3 = 147

It should be noted that the Speed specialist actually was very close to having gotten the bronze.

Aleksei Rubtsov, Boulder World Champion in 2009, got the ticket to Moscow after a Leadspeed drama that will go to the record books. First out is William Bosi who touches the final jug and then Sergei Luzhetski tops with 3.09 left on the clock. Rubtsov is third last out but as his best ever Lead WC result is #15 and that he was #16 in the Lead qualification, realistically he is fighting for the bronze overall even if he was #5 in Speed and #1 in Boulder. The Russian sets out in Lead Speed mode and does the Lead climb of his lifetime touching the final jug much faster than Bosi.

Next out is the big favourite Sasha Lehmann who needs to top out faster than Sergei in order to get the ticket. After beating the Russian with some 20 seconds the commentator says he thinks this is enough and Sasha's name is on top of the provisional results. Then Yuval Shelma starts running up the route and as he tops out even faster, Rubtsov is the lucky man going to Tokyo and Sasha need to wait until Paris 2024.

Congratulation the Olympian he responds in a text message. "Amazing moment, no words... Yuval is my hero." (c) Nikita Tsarev

1. Aleksei Rubtsov RUS 5 - 1 - 4 (2.42) = 20
2. Sascha Lehmann SUI 4 - 3 - 2 (2.31) = 24
3. Sergei Luzhetski RUS 2 - 5 - 3 (2.51) = 30
4. Nikolai Iarilovets RUS 3 - 2 - 6 = 36
5. Yuval Shelma ISR 8 - 6 - 1 (2.20) = 48
6. Marcin Dzienski POL 1 - 8 - 8 = 64
7. Alex Khazanov ISR 7 - 4 - 7 = 196
8. William Bosi GBR 6 - 7 - 5 (3.20) = 210

The 32-year-old had no sponsors until 2015, besides free shoes from La Sportiva. In his 8a scorecard he has logged a dozen 8B+ and harder and two 9a's out of which one from this summer. Here are some interesting comments from Rubtsov published in Innsbruck 2018

"The brain is the most important part in climbing. Maybe not in speed (laughs), but in bouldering for sure. In Europe, every coach thinks that he's the smartest one and his system is the best. They are authoritarian. But they should understand that they know nothing and start their education from zero. I can't tell you what I do, because that is my secret. Laughs. You need to widen your repertoire to improve, not focusing on small things, but on the big picture... It is better for me to be alone. You could maybe remove the bonus, even. You can do the boulder, or you can't. Bouldering is good. One bonus, two bonuses, ten bonuses, ... what is that? It's not Bouldering."

Russia got the two tickets to Tokyo but even more impressive was that they in total got five golds, three silvers and four bronzes out of a total of eight sets of medals. The second most successful country was Switzerland (Sasha Lehmann) with one gold and one bronze. Dima Sharafutdinov, the three-time boulder world champion, is their head coach. He ha promised to make an explanation how this could be possible.

Showcase our sport through events is the IFSC first key objective. I must say that IFSC badly needs to present digital info live on the screen in order to take full advantage of all excitement that happens in Combined in Moscow Here is some info that could be visible all the time making the event a better showcase of our sport.

1. Personal best time next to the athletes time
2. Current rankings after each round in both Speed and Boulder
3. In bouldering the results for each boulder is not possible to find at all
4. Current rankings based on the multiplication score

Furthermore, Matt Groom who is doing a great job, needs a sidekick that can analyse the result and explain what results are needed for the athletes. With no digital updates live on the screen it is very hard for him analysing everything live. As an example, as Jernej Kruder was in trouble on his third boulder, the excitement would increase if the audience would hear. "Most probably, Jernej needs to top in order to have a chance for Tokyo."

In reality, one can speculate that a max score of 380 is needed in order to make it to the Top-8. In other words, William Bosi and Sergei Luzhetski, could just drop out after the first hold in order to save their muscles and performing at their best when the Olympic ticket is at stake tomorrow. Stasa Gejo just needs to beat the Speed specialists, meaning she can let go after 4-5 clips probably.

Alexander Rohr has done his ninth 9a by the FA of The Back Of Beyond 9a in Soyhières. (c) Hannes Kutza

"Extension to Jusqu‘au bout du monde. Hard boulder after the first pitch and really resistant. Finally, the original line is born and the Jura got his first 9a. I tried it some days in the beginning of November, but the conditions were still too warm. I went there again last week for three sessions and had a breakthrough on Thursday. Then the conditions on the weekend were bad again but I finally sent on Tuesday on my third try of the day.

The key in this route is doing the lower pitch which is 8c without getting tired and having dry but not too cold conditions. It was a bit weird, as the conditions changed quite a lot and it became hard to predict what‘s going to happen. But in the end, I just kept in trying and got rewarded.

Local Moscow GMT+3 time
15.50 Women's Speed Finals
16.30 Men's Speed Finals
17.30 Women's Boulder Finals
19.00 Men's Boulder Finals
21.00 Women's Lead Finals

David Kompatscher has done his first 8C, Zunami in Saalachtal. Actually, until 2020, his hardest boulder during the last two years was doing a couple 8A's. Uncut video.

"I already got close to sending the boulder three years ago, but then a knee injury stopped me from trying it because there is an essential hook, which is really demanding for the knee. Some weeks ago I gave it a try again - the knee felt good and I got really close. All in all, I invested around 25 to 30 days on projecting the boulder."

Seb Bouin reports on Insta that he has done the first repeat of De l’autre Côté du Ciel (The Other Side of the Sky) 9a in Les Eaux Claires, which Fred Rouhling put up in 1997. "It’s a huge roof really esthetic, it looks likes someone cut it with a knife. The moves are really big and impressive. There are some twist and 360° on the roof on good holds. Almost 100% chipped, but so fun to climb." (c) Julien Nadiras

Seb, who previously has done some 65 routes 9a and harder, has the last month repeated Rouhlings Hugh 9a from 1993 and the first repeat of Akira 9a (b) from 1995. Seb has commented to 8a, "Fred was ahead of his time and part of the reason for my Vintage trip was to salute him. The difficulty of those routes is amazing! At the same time, I can just say all three routes felt 9a."

Martin Keller, one of the first who started with fans in order to optimize friction for outdoor bouldering, gives some advice also in regards skin treatment.

If you suffer from sweaty and soft skin you can try some of the following tips:
- Use liquid-chalk as a base before you apply your regular chalk.
- Try Antihydrahl when you have really sweaty fingers and/or use a product from Rhinoskin as these are not as strong as Antihydrahl.
- Make sure to not apply these products in between the finger-joints otherwise you will get splits!
- When you are using Antihydrahl (or similar products) use sandpaper to sand off old and hard skin. Especially make sure to take care off the sides off the fingertips to avoid splits!
- Before you start to climb cool your fingers down on a piece of cold rock. Make sure to just cool down your fingertips. You don't want your joints to cool down too much!
- Stay outside your gym for a few minutes, use some doorframes (metal) to cool your finger-tips down (not recommended in corona-times though!).
- You can use a fan to cool your fingers down before and while bouldering as well!

For thick and hard elephant skin and when you climb in cold and very dry conditions you can try the following:
- Experiment by slightly moistening your fingers before you start to climb (use a water spray or RhinoSkin-Spit) and then apply your regular chalk and wait for one to two minutes before you start to climb
. - When you climb on very polished rock (like “Bruno-Boulder” in Magic Wood) you can also try to slightly moisture the holds with your brush or use a water-spray (DO NOT DO THIS on sandstone and/or fragile rock as it may breaks!).
- Sand down excessive skin so your skin does not get too thick. But while sanding you also generate harder skin so you have a trade-off here!
. - Solve this trade-off by still sanding excessive skin off and then applying a cream containing "urea" (5%-25%) which will enable you to conserve more moisture deeply in your skin. This will make your skin more elastic and softer!

Here some other reflections by Martin:
- The older the less (young) elastic the skin!
- Soft skin (but not too soft) is better indoors and on comps
- Soft skin is better on a rock type with less friction especially on polished holds.
- Elephant skin is generally better on positive and incut hold and on granite and more aggressive rock.
- Clean your hands from chalk after climbing and then use a hand cream of your choice to give your skin some moisture back to kick-start the recovery process.