Antoine Maire, who has done seven 8c's in 2020 but started to focus on bouldering one month ago, has done Quoi de neuf outside Fontainebleau comparing it with an 8c+ route. Previously the hybrid climb has been making headlines as an 8B+ or 8C boulder as well as an 8Cc traverse. It took him two sessions to do the first 8A part, three sessions to do the second 8B part and then another three sessions to link them together.

"So happy! I'm working on La Force extension now! I think it's not a boulder or a traverse but it's like a route because it's like 30 moves of power endurance so I suppose it had to be a route grade.I think it is a hard 8c+."

Zhao Lei, Team Manager of Chinese Climbing Team, has published two videos on his Insta from the China nationals in Speed. Qixin Zhong, 165 cm tall, set a new unofficial world record in Speed at 5.35 among the male. Previously the 31-year-old has won 12 World Cups and 3 World Championships. He also won the last WC in 2019 at 5.49 which was his first victory in three years. It should be noted that in the video, Qixin's opponent Cao Long is ahead until his foot slips in the very end getting very close to go under 5.30 it seems. In training, Cao has done 5.25. The official world record is 5.48 set by Reza Alipour in 2017.

It should be mentioned that the new world records were set on an certified wall but in order to set a new world record, it has to be an IFSC competion with an IFSC Jury President. Among the female, Lijuan Deng won at 6.74 which can be compared with the official world record at 6.995 by Aries Susanti Rahayu. Lijuan is 20-years-old and last year she only participated once in the World Cup where she was #5 at 7.40.

Tom Bolger, who previously has done eight 9a's, reports on Insta that he has done Gancho Perfect 9a (+) in Margalef. (c) Eduardo Navarro

"Gancho perfecto is an awesome steep route bolted by Chris Sharma. I was super psyched to complete this project as I had a bit of a mental barrier with the route having fallen on the last move! Psyched to carry on with the run of form that I have this year :) enjoying the climbing to its most! The route has three main boulders with a heartbreaker finish, a dead point from a shallow two finger pocket to a slopey hold on the lip of the overhang, that last move is as much mental as physical to hit it right ...."

Jakob Schubert, the best male Lead competitor the last ten years, reports on Insta that he has flashed Lichtjahre 8c+ and Goldrausch 8c. It should be mentioned that Lichtjahre has been considered a hard 8c until a hold broke and Alex Megos suggested an upgrade. Furthermore, Jakob is one of the open climbers being honest having several times given personal grades. Olympian Michael Piccolruaz gives us the story.

"I kind of demo climbed Lichtjahre. In Goldrausch he got the beta from Heiko Wilhelm. Always pretty much in control 😅 he followed the beta we gave him quite exactly as we said 👍".

Dave Graham reports on Insta that he has done Ali Hulk Sit Start Extension Total 9b in Rodellar. The story he has published is as good as it gets finishing with, "One of my most memorable and rewarding ascents in my life 🙌🏻"

Here is how it begins building up the dramaturgy, "The day it went down I had zero expectations to climb it 🤣 It was one of the last hot days we had, particularly humid, and not a lot of wind, I was tired from trying No Pain the day before, and had some nagging splits that needed tape, so I sat myself down at the start whimsically for a good old training burn, planning to fall at the first crux..."

The 38-year-old has been one of the leading rock climbers for the last 20 years. He is also known from videos and social media for his energy, expressing and adding detail after detail for whatever climbing subject he is talking about with often a philosophical touch. On Insta he has 101 000 followers. Chatting with him means he clicks on Enter 50 times just within a ten minute interview adding interesting comments. He is also very very popular and familiar among the hard core elite climbers as he has been on the road for like 20 years. The coming Mellow Climbing video is something to look forward to ;) There is also an 8a interview coming up as soon as there will be some rainy rest days in Rodellar, we have been promised.

Interesting is also that Dave says there are three harder sit starts possible in the middle of the cave most certainly kicking up the grade.

Adam Ondra has a regular shoe size of 44 but his La Sportiva are normally 39, see the picture! The trick he uses, when they are brand new, is to squeeze them in by putting the heal and toes inside the plastic paper that goes with the shoes. At the same time, being challenged on on slab volumes in bouldering comps, he has said that the size does not matter and some slabs he could equally well be doing in his sneakers. The reason for this is that you do not want the ballerina feeling on such volume slabs as you instead want as much even friction as possible. However, normally all the top climbers are eager for doing the Geisha trick and this has caused a lot of pain for the regular climbers.

Training indoors standing mainly on bigger holds, it is counter productive for all below 7a to use tight painful shoes. If you want to build up your toe strength, it is actually better to climb in bigger very soft shoes and now we are talking shoes you do not have to take off after each climb. Once you get more advanced, you can buy also a tighter size but them you should only be using outdoors or when challenging yourself bouldering on small foot holds. A further disadvantage with small shoes, beside the pain and that you do not train your toes equally much, is that they wear out faster as all your weight is stressed on a smaller sweet spot of your shoes.

IFSC have taken the decision that the remaining eight spots to the Tokyo Olympics will be based on the 2019 Combined World Championship results, if the Continental Combined Championships in 2020 are cancelled. Here are the eight athletes that could hope for cancelled events.

Europe: Jernej Kruder SLO & Jenya Kazbekova UKR
Africa: Rachelle de Charmoy RSA & Calrin Curtis RSA
Oceania: Campbell Harrison AUS & Oceania MacKenzie AUS
Asia: Chaehyun Seo KOR & Jongwon Chon KOR

Matt Fultz, who last week did his first 8C+ Hypnotized Minds, has done his seventh 8C in 2020, Echalo in Clear Creek Canyon. Amazingly, the 29-year-old did his first 8C just 18 months ago and now he is #3 in the 8a ranking game. In 2018, he was mainly around #20 in the ranking game.

How can you explain being able to step up your game so significantly?
Honestly, I think a lot of my progress has come from my nutrition. My wife, Hailey, is a nutrition coach for climbers. She has guided me on a nutrition journey that has been life changing. It’s been excellent for my recovery, energy, and longevity.

Olympic Channel interview with Adam Ondra.- "I don't really know who I would be if I wasn't a climber"

Gonzalo Larrocha has had a productive week in Rodellar having done one 8c+ and two 9a's; Mona lisa L1 and La menina sixtina R2. The latter he personally think it is 8c+.

"I did "La menina sixtina" one week ago. It is a combination of La menina and la capilla sixtina. Last Tuesday I sent "Mona Lisa" which cost me a lot of tries in June, but now I only made six more. It was strange because on Sunday I could not do the hard crux. Finally on Wednesday I sent "Se me fue la Pinza" a new 8c+ bolted by Dani Andrada in June and which has been done by Jonatan Flor and Dani. It's a strange route where you need to manage the knee bars very well."