The boulder qualification did not turn out good as the first three boulders were too easy and the last too hard. YuFei Pan from China, #17 in the Boulder WC, won ahead of Adam Ondra which means they most probably got an Olympic ticket. Pan was #7 in Speed meaning that if he is dead last he will make it to the final anyhow. Ondra will qualify to the final if he is around tenth in Lead. In the end there were ten guys getting three tops and four zones and the most unlucky was William Bosi who was super close getting also the fourth boulder. If so, he would most probably have gotten the olympic ticket. Now he was #9 and as he was #12 in Speed he needs a surprising podium place or so in Lead to make it to the final. Conforming the poor route setting was that all 22, including the Speed specialists, had no problem what so ever to get the zone at the same time as only Meichi Narasaki topped it. Complete results As it stands, Nathaniel Coleman #5 in Speed and #6 in Boulder is the one having performed better than expected. He needs to be around tenth in Lead to make it to the final which is his weakest discipline. It should be underlined that Lead specialists Sascha Lehmann and Stefano Ghisolfi are among the three last but if they win, or possibly are runner up, they could anyhow make it to the final. (c) Vladek Zumr

Tanguy MERARD 🦐 has done his second 8c+, Les grandes bouches du Rhone in Seynes. (c) Olivia Laval "I know it isn't my limit and this two 8c+' are just a step for harder projects. I work the project of Seynes (probably 9a), with very hard boulder problem on very tiny crimp. I think I am not so far to do this route which is very interesting!"

Solveig Korherr, who just did her first 8c+, has done one more, Lucifer in Red River Gorge. Amazingly she only needed four days. The German is now #1 in the 8a ranking game. (c) Jon Shen "I was quite surprised to be able to do all the moves on my first day on Lucifer. On my second day, there were quite bad conditions at the cliff. I got on the climb just to practice the moves and make links. At the end of the day, a thunderstorm rolled in and there was a waterfall seeping down and coming off of the anchors! On my third day, I made some very good links when I managed to stick the lower crux but I fell in the upper crux sequence going to the ledge. On my fourth day, I did it on the third go of the day, having fallen even higher (one move from the jug rest). However, after a little pep talk, I fought super hard to make it to the rest. Despite being nervous, I calmed myself down and climbed quickly through the upper section (a pumpy 7c+/8a) to the chains."

Sean McColl is the President in the athletes comission and he posted on Facebook; "With the bouldering order randomized (now looks like maybe reverse combined ranking), it’ is often helpful to come out in the first half." Beside having less pressure and better condition, the guys starting first will have longer rest before the lead qualification. It just might be that in the WC 2020, the athletes doing the Olympics will not focus on getting a good Combined results overall. The best strategy for this would be to just participate once in Speed, meaning you do not get a result what so ever and will start first in Tokyo.

1. The multplication method is not fair; Bassa Mawem did go to the Olympics beating Alfian Muhammed with 0,03 seconds, who ended #13. 2. More zones are needed in Boulder; This would make it easier to separate the field. Remember that in the final there ae only three boulders. 3. The starting order should be random in Boulder; It is bad that performing poor in the World Cup 2020 gives an advantage. 4. Better digital scoring in all three disciplines; It is very hard to keep track of the current ranking and what is needed in Speed and the same goes for Boulder. As time is separating ties in Lead, we need a digital system in order to increase the excitements.

Multi-pitches and Big walls are not the highest prio of 8a but with Babsi Zangerl pushing so hard it could be interesting to see if she actually could be Top-5 when it comes to measuring tick lists. So let us try it out by ranking it from the Top-10 ascents. We do not include sport climbing multi-pitch routes. Tommy Caldwell should be considered as #1 and here are some names that could challenge Zangerl Barbara in the Top-10; Iker Pou, Eneko Pou, Edu Marin, Nicolas Favresse, Jorg Verhoeven, David Lama, Adam Ondra, Alex Huber, Kevin Jorgeson, Jacopo Larcher... Please add your comments and suggest your Top-5.

As have been mentioned before, when it comes to gender equalness climbing is unique. There is no other physical sport where the females are as close to the males performance as in climbing. The best examples are Babsi Zangerl in Big Wall and Hazel Findlay in trad but also Ashima Shirashi in Boulder and Angela Eiter in Sport are relatively close to the male performance. When it comes to youngsters, the best ever boulder performances relative to their age, have been done by girls; Ashima Shiraishi and Oriane Bertone. Talking about one single achievement, Lynn Hill did the FA of The Nose in 1993. In total, it has only been repeated seven times in 26 years out of which two ascents by a female. If we measure who is the best rock climber overall, combining Big Wall, Sport, Trad and Bouldering, it just might be that Babsi Zangerl is Top-10 or so.

On Thursday, the Olympic male qualification starts in Toulouse with Speed at 11.00 followed 13.00 with Bouldering and finishes at 16.45 with Lead. There are 22 male participants, out of which 18 battles for six tickets to Tokyo. Japan comes with four male but they have already filled their country quota. In theory, it might be good enough to be #12 also France and Germany might fill their quota. The Top-8 go to the final meaning, it is the qualification day that counts and the final day is most probably just a formality training of the Olympic final format. As the result is based on multiplication, it is almost 100 % certain that qually winners in each disciplin will make it to the Olympics. In practice, also the runner ups are expected to get a ticket. Here is the 8a speculation for who will get a ticket to Tokyo. The reason why there are so many male Lead specialists is because most of the Japanese are boulder specialists and also rather good in Speed. In other words, if Japan gets the two first positions in Boulder and perform also in Speed, three Lead specialists and Adam Ondra are expected to get high up in the ranking. 1. Adam Ondra CZE - Lucka Rakovec SLO 2. Bassa Mawem FRA - YiLing Song CHN 3. Alberto Gines Lopez ESP - YueTong Sang CHN 4. Stefano Ghisolfi ITA - Jain Kim KOR 5. Sasha Lehmann SUI - Julia Chanourdie FRA 6. Alfian Muhammed INA - Anouck Jaubert FRA A very interesting side note is how Adam Ondra performance in Speed. His current PB is 7.87 at the same time as most are under 7 seconds. If Adam does not come close to seven seconds, it just might be strategically to skip serious Speed training. With the multiplication system, it does not matter so much if you are #15 or #20 in the qually or #7 or #8 in the final.

99boulders has via Willis Kuelthau published a comprehensive list of all the 8b+ trad routes in the world. Jacopo Larcher is listed with seven so possibly he is #1 in the world? Also considering his FA of Tribe which he said was his hardest but did not grade. Interestingly, his partner Babsi Zangerl has done three meaning she is tied as #7. In total, five 8c+ are listed including Beth Rodden's Meltdown from 2008 which could be considered the first if we exclude Dave MacLeod's Rhapsody from 2006. Downgrades have been suggested and it has also been said to be an eliminate. Furthermore, MacLeod climbed 25m of it on top rope as he previously once had down climbed from that point. He did not place any gear on the actual ascent.