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Hannes Puman and Sascha Lehmann were the only males topping out both qualification routes. Interesting is that the best result among the one making it to the Boulder final yesterday was Nicolas Collins #16. Jernej Kruder was #28 suggesting that the male Olympic qualification is an open affair.

Among the female, both Viktoria Meshkova and Chloe Caulier who were quite superior in the Boulder final, were among the four girls topping out both routes, together with Eliska Adamovska and Daria Mezentseva. Noteworthy is that Petra Klingler, who won the boulder qualification but then retired due to a shoulder injury, did not participate in Lead. This means that the favourite to win the Combined is out from that competition. Complete results

Julia Chanourdie, who just released the video from her recent 9b, reports on Insta that she has done La ligne claire 8c+ in St Légere on her fourth go. (c) Jan Novak

In total, the Olympian has done six routes 8c+/9a and harder, meaning she is #5 in that list.

Laura Rogora reports on Insta that she has done the first repeat of Stefano Ghisolfis's The Bow 9a+ in Padaro. "Quite impressive, probably one of the best female achievements ever, I think the route is extremely hard. I think, she used similar beta on the crux with some adjustments for her height. I also gave her some advice and betas."

The 19-year-old did move from Rome to Arco in the beginning of the year in order to have better training and outdoor possibilities. In total, she has done eleven routes 8c+ to 9b previously, meaning she has one of the best track records in the world in 2020 also including the male. In July, she won the Briancon World Cup ahead of Janja Garnbret.

Super drama when Viktoria Meshkova secured her European title, one attempt to zone less than Caulier Chloe. Jernej Kruder had won before he going for the last boulder but instead of saving his skin for the Olympic quest his auto-pilot kicked and he gave his best during ten tries creating the best show he could. Noteworthy is also that both the winners also won the semifinal. (c) Vladek Zumr

1. Jernej Kruder SLO 23 - Viktoria Meshkova 44 (6,5)
2. Sergei Luzhetskii RUS 13 - Caulier Chloe BEL 44 (6,6)
3. Nikolai Iarilovets RUS 13 - Stasa Gejo SRB 24
Complete results

Liam A Biscuit, who had 8B as a personal best coming into 2020, has done his first 8C, The Nest at First Creek. Amazingly he took it down in just two sessions. "The first day I did the stand start which is the hardest part by far, and then the second day I warmed up on the moves and managed to send the whole thing on my first real try from the bottom.

I’m not even sure I’m in better shape than ever or if this particular climb just somehow suited me perfectly! That being said, ever since my friend Stick Nugent got taken into a math cult I have wanted to climb in his honour and make his memory proud, so this fall I trained with rage in my heart and life in my soul and love in my brain to become the climber he would want me to be."
How can you explain your great progress in 2020 having done 13 boulders 8B and harder?
Graduating college and getting my own car made a difference, but more importantly starting a vlog with my BFF Kai and wanting to provide it with good content has lit a fire under my ass.

Jonathan Hörst (18) and big brother Cameron (20) have done Southern Smoke 8c+ in Red River Gorge. Jonathan: "What a day! Undoubtedly my best day of climbing ever and a milestone for me. First of the grade and the first 8c+ I’ve worked on. After many beta burns in undesirable conditions and pumpy redpoint goes I acquired the fitness to knock it off. Fell off the top crimp move the go before and sent unexpectedly after (then Sugar Magnolia 8b). These moves will be forever engrained in my brain. Classic!

My endurance is the best it’s ever been and my capacity to climb while pumped is also better than it has been. I was training endurance burns with hard climbing separated by jug rests. This was my first time spending over a week at the red so I managed to get the Red river gorge fitness. So psyched!"

Picture by his father Eric Hörst, who is a famous coach and auther. "Jonathan played America football for 10 years, while only climbing part-time. He climbed his first 8b+ at age 10 (a record at the time), but just now is he climbing more, since he's in college...and only climbing (no more football). So he did both his first 8c climbs this summer, and his first 8c+ last week! He's often in the shadow of his older brother, but Jon is very talented too! 🙂"

Stephan Rest has done his first 8C, Das Schwert in Hammerhöhle after some 18 sessions spread out over five months. It was put up by Klem Loskot. "

Projecting this boulder was pretty hard due to its location on the corner of a cave. You never knew if it would be dry or wet. As it got colder and colder I got closer to sending the boulder but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to send it this year. When the temperature were low and the boulder was completely dry I knew I had to send it. And I did. It is 12 moves to the top and the hardest move is to a slopy crimp and then bumping into a bad undercling and placing your foot to the same height as the hand."

Ekaterina Barashchuk of Russia and Danyil Boldyrev of Ukraine won two extremely tight battles, getting the 2020 European Speed titles. Among the non-Speed specialists, Sascha Lehmann and Petra Klingler were best at #12 with 7.29 respectively #7 with 8.59. This was a new PB by Petra and she is now second after Miho Nonaka (8.43) among the non-Speed specialists. Complete results.

Aleksei Rubtsov won the qualification in the Europan Bouldering Championship scoring 35 in six tries. (c) Nikita Tsarev

Anze Peharc and Vadim Timonov had the same scoring using seven respectively eight tries. In total, there were five Russian on Top-11. Complete results

In total, there were 43 guys competing with the Speed qually and final winners shared the last position scoring nothing. The semi starts tomorrow at 8 am. It will be very interesting to see if all guys focusing on Tokyo 2021, will do as many tries as they use to or if they will make less attempts in order to save their skin?