Illya Bakhmet-Smolenskyi, who did his first 9a last year, has done two 8c's and two 8b+'s in Osp/Misja Pec during just ten days.

Giuliano Cameroni on the FA of Africa’s first 9a, a bouldery route in Rocklands, ZA. The line was found by Dave Graham and lately bolted by a local for Fred Nicole, who tried it for five seasons. This year, Fred allowed someone else to try, and Giuliano made the first ascent after three days of work.

Isabelle Faus, who did her third 8B+ this summer, has done her 23rd 8B, Jerimiah Daiabolical in Coal Creek. Isa extends her lead in the 8a ranking game.

Edu Marin, who just opened one of the hardest MP's in the world in China, has done the FA of The Clinic 9a+ in Quzhou. It is located in a big cave with incredible holes and it is like 20 meters long. The Spaniard bolted it in October and it has been an intense struggle to take it down. Now he feels in great shape and are looking forward to return home and continue with his projects in Catalunya.

alizee dufraisse, who this summer did her third 8B, has done her seventh 8A+, Lethal Design in Red Rocks and it just took her one session. "It was tall so I was sycked there was a lot of pads for the ending! I think 9 pads and 3 good spot, haha. I had cold fingers and didn't check the top before. It was epic :) It is 8a+ tho! I stay in red rocks for 3 more weeks, probably try to do some route climbing too for keeping the resistance high for route climbing in Spain, but mostly bouldering because it s really cold here!"

Eliot Stephens, who six months ago had done two 8B+', has had an amazing one month trip around Ticino where he did eleven boulders 8A+ and harder including three 8B+' andArzak 8C in Murgtal. "Great line from Fred with some excellent movement. A nice milestone. Love this style. Next time we go back... from the last, to the first. " The 27-year-old talks about Nicole's FAs, meaning his next goal is Dreamtime. How can you explain your recent peak performance? I had maybe 3 years of one bad finger pulley injury after another. Feel like I have been on the same level for a while, and don’t feel like I really jumped up a level in the last years, just things have started working out. I suppose if you work hard enough eventually he results come Mainly last 12 months I have avoided injury, that is really the key. Allowed my fingers to progress as they should have and not kept taking steps backwards. I also made more focus on rock climbing. And just tried more stuff near my limit." Next plan is to train until spring and then think about where to go next. want to get back to Swiss for Dreamtime

We all know that whoever wins the Speed in Tokyo will advance to the final. Mathematically, getting 1 - 8 - 8 will probably mean #5 overall but also #4 or #6 is could be the case. In theory, a bronze is also possible but then, first of all, the two same climbers need to get both two first places in Boulder and Lead. Furthermore, whoever gets third in one discipline needs to be among the last in the others. However, the presumed four female Speed climbers in Tokyo could dramatically increase the possibilities for a bronze by sophisticated and non-Sportsmanship teamwork. First, they run in Speed and then they just help the winner to get the bronze by performing tactically in Boulder and Lead. In practice, this would mean that only the #2 in Speed tries to get a zone in boulder and then go as high as possible in Lead. This would mean #2, at worst, ends 2 *17 * 17 = 578. In Hachioji, 432 points were needed to make the final Top-8 but if we add two more Speed specialists, the #8 score would have been 720 points. Among the female 420 points were needed but once again having four Speed specialists, the #8 score would have been 504. We should also add that with the country quota, it is more likely that the score of the #8 will get higher. In other words, with some Teamwork among the female Speed specialists, two could make it to the final Top-8. Then in the final, the same procedure and the best could up with 1 * 7 * 7 = 49 which probably would mean a bronze. I do not encourage teamwork like suggested but it shows another weakness of the multiplication format and IFSV should follow it up.

Mia Krampl had a poor start in the Combined final, ending #7 in both Speed and Boulder at the same time as her competitor for the Slovenian slot, Lucka Rakovec was #6 and #3. This meant that the only chance that Mia could get to Tokyo was winning Lead at the same time at Lucka was third. As Mia, who the last four comps had lost to Lucka, did just get 3/4 up the route, starting first, it did not look promising. Then Lucka got just one hold below Mia meaning the only miracle that could get her through was that another one equalled Lucka's score at the same time climbing faster. Furthermore, no other should beat, Mia's highpoint. Then Julia Chanouride did just that and as all the remaining four did not pass Mia's highpoint, the 19year-old got the Slovenian remaining Olympic ticket. Complete results X. Futaba Ito JPN 4 - 1 -7 = 28 1. Julia Chanourdie FRA 3 - 5 - 2 = 30 2. Mia Krampl SLO 7 - 7 - 1 = 49 X. Lucka Rakovec SLO 6 - 3 - 3 = 54 X. Ai Mori JPN 8 - 2 - 4 = 64 3. Iuliia Kaplina RUS 1 - 8 - 8 = 64 4. Kyra Kondie USA 2 - 6 - 6 = 72 5. Laura Rogora ITA 5 - 4 - 5 = 100 Noteworthy is that there were four girls tied on 31+ including also Ai Mori and Laura Rogora. If Laura had been the fastest, she would have been #2 overall instead of being #8 and dead last. If she would have gotten one move further, 32+ instead of 31+, she would have gotten 20 points and won overall! On the other hand, such a result for Laura had moved Krampl from #3 to being #8 and dead last! Furthermore, if the normal rules with countback to the previous round had been used then Julia Canourdie had moved from #2 to #7 and Ai Mori had advanced from #5 to #2. (Pointed out by JLH in the forum.) Adding the results instead of multiplying would have meant Lucka would have been #3 and Mia #7.

Lucka Rakovec did climb faster than Mia Krampl in all the three rounds in Speed. Then in Boulder, Lucka was totally superior doing all three boulders at the same time Mia did just get one zone. In total, Lucka got 2 + 5 + 3 moves longer in the three boulders. Then in Lead Lucka recached 31+ and Mia 32. Clearly, it must be obvious for all including Mia Krampl that Lucka Rackovec is a better Combined climber although the IFSC multiplication ranking list says the opposite. Personally I think the word "Combined" means adding the results in all disciplines like it is done in all other Combined sports. Adding the results then Lucka Rakovec would have been #3 in the ranking and Mia Krampl #7! On the other hand, Mia is a Lead specialists who got the silver in the World Championship in Hachioji. During the Boulder final it seemed like she had a back problem. She must have known that her chance to get the ticket was, first of all, to win in Lead and she adopted to that an executed perfectly. (c) Eddie Fowke - Lucka to the left and Mia to the right.

Tomoa Narasaki, World Champion in both Boulder and Combined as well as WC winner 2019, reports on Insta that he has flashed Decided 8B+. Beta was checking the video of Ryuhichi Murai. Adam Ondra and Daniel Woods are also Boulder World Cup winners that have previously have flashed 8B+. (c) Shinta Ozawa