"Out in the league of his own in the Speed wall was French Champion Bassa Mawem." This is not correct. Bassa beat Alfian Muhammed by 0.04 seconds which gave the French an Olympic ticket. #3 Jan Hojer was 0.73 seconds behind Alfian.

Stefano Ghisolfi was the first one to Top the Lead route which later also Sascha Lehmann, Alberto Gines Lopez and Adam Ondra did. As Lopez tied Stefano's time, by the second, and later Ondra, climbing last, was the fastest, Ghisolfi lost his Olympic dream and instead finished #12. Although there will be a final on Saturday the six spots to Tokyo are already decided as also Kokoro Fujii and Meichi Narasaki made it to the Top-8 final. The results also mean that both France and Germany have filled their max country quota as Japan did in the World Championship. Complete results 1. Adam Ondra CZE (c) Vladek Zumr 2. YueFei Pan CHN 3. Alberto Gines Lopez ESP 4. Jan Hojer GER 5. Bassa Mawem FRA X. Kokoro Fujii JPN 6. Nathaniel Coleman USA X. Meichi Narasaki JPN Another dramatic example of how much impact Speed had in Lead. If Sasha had been the fastest to Top, he had made it to Tokyo instead of being #15.

Iuliia Kaplina, overall WC winner in 2016 who has won 12 WC's but who has had her worst Speed season for several years in 2019, set a WC PB with 7.37 and won the Speed event ahead of YiLing Song at 7.416. Third was 6.995 world record holder Aries Susanti Rahayu with 7.461 after having slipped in both her races. As there were a total of five Speed specialists dominating, there are still good chances for YiLing Song to advance to the final but Aries needs a miracle. Best by the non-Speed specialist was Kyra Kondie with 8.891 but as she anyhow was just #6 it does not have as much impact with the current multiplication system. Complete results

YiLing Song, the Speed specialist who was #2 in that event, was the lucky #9 overall and nevertheless got a ticket although not making it to the Top-8a final. The reason for this is that both Ai Mori, the only one to Top out, and Futaba Ito can not get a ticket as the Japan country quota has already been filled. Furthermore, the Slovenians, Lucka Rakovec #2 overall and Mia Krampl #3 overall, are fighting for only one remaining place to Tokyo. X. Ai Mori JPN 44 1. Lucka Rakovec SLO 45 2. Mia Krampl SLO 120 3. Laura Rogara ITA 256 X. Futaba Ito JPN 392 4. Julia Chanourdie FRA 420 5. Iuliia Kaplina RUS RUS 441 6. Kyra Kondie USA 528 9. YiLing Song CHN 760 Complete results Unlucky #10 overall was Fanny Gibert. If she had done one more move she would have advanced to the Olympic. In any case, she will have one more chance during the European Combined Championship. Noteworthy is that USA has now filled their quota meaning the Allanah Yip from Canada is the big favorite to get the ticket in the Combined Pn-American Championship. It should also be mentioned that three female speed specialists have qualified to Tokyo. Furthermore, it is almost certain that either Anouck Jaubert or Di Niu will get the Tripartite ticket. This means that we could end up with two female Speed specialists getting through to the final and one of them getting a medal.

The Speed qualifying event in Tououse turned out to be super dramatic. After the first round, Bassa Mawem was #1 with 5.731. Then Alifan Muhammed beat him doing 5.726, i.e he was 0.005 seconds faster. In front of his home crowd, Bassa improved his time with getting 5.687. This means that most probably Bassa Mawem has secured a spot in the Olympics, like his brother Mickael previously did. The only risk is in fact if Manuel Cornu also makes it Top-8 and beat him in the final, filling up the country quota. Other than that Jan Hojer set a new PB with 6.456 as #3. If the German also is Top-3 in bouldering, most probably he should also advance to the final even if he is dead last in Lead. It should also be good enough to be #5 in Boulder and #12 in Lead. One uncertainty is if Yannick Flohe fills up the country quota. Noteworthy was also that Adam Ondra did set a new PB with 7.464 which was almost sensational as he previoulsy mainly has done 8+ seconds races. Complete results (c) Vladek Zumr

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.