Jernej Kruder, winner of the World Cup in 2018, has done his fourth 8C, Dreamtime in Cresciano. "On the first few sessions already falling from the last move. I can't believe I needed more than 16 days for this one. Low percentage moves made it difficult for me, even though they didn't feel too hard. Dream line *****." The Slovenian got an invitation to the Toulouse Olympic qualification some two weeks ago. Due to that IFSC changed one rule and that the Japan Federation has sued IFSC, it is no longer certain if he can go. IFSC has officially said they have "freezed" the invitations. What makes the situation really bad on Kruder's side is that he decided to skip the last WC as he had, based on the original rules, calculated that he already had secured him a spot to Toulouse.

Jakob Schubert, who just did his first 9b+, reports on Insta that he has flashed Victimes del Futur in Margalef calling it 8c+/9a. It is a 30 meter 8b+ followed by a 7C+ boulder crux at the top which was put up by Ramon Julian Puigblanque in 2015 as an 8c. Later some holds broke and all repeaters before Schubert have called it 9a. (c) Julia Cassou

Giuliano Cameroni, who previoulsy has done 15 boulders 8C and 8C+, has made the FA of Gran Paradiso 8B+/8C. "Few weeks ago, on the first day in Valle dell’Orco, Bernd Zangerl showed me this incredible project, one of the most unique line I’ve seen on granite: stem gem intro on a super steep dihedral is followed by a very powerful shoulder section that leads into Bravirabi, a 5 stars highball. Due to tricky conditions I had to wait till the last day of the trip, when the good grip allowed me to send both this and Il Colonel!"

Thomas Lindinger has done the fourth ascent of Toni Lamprecht's Bokassa's Frigde - Assassin Monkey and Man in Kochel. Originally suggested as an 8C+ back in 2009, Lindinger calls it his first 8C. "I started to work Bokassas last autumn when Chris Rauch figured out a shorty beta for the stand. Being able to climb the stand also made me think about the 8C for the first time. It took me five sessions this season to get it done Overall about 10-15 sessions I guess. I think the key to climb my first 8C was the possibility to try it often as it isn’t far away from Munich and that it fits my style perfectly."

Ryuichi Murai reports on Insta that he has done the FA of United 8C+, which is a five move 8B+ sd into Decided 8B+. "Finally finished off my nemesis project yesterday! Everything worked out well! Perfect temperature, perfect friction, and perfect climbing!(though top out was unstable) The success of Decided SD marks a new level in my climbing. So psyched!"

Alex Totkova, who did her first 8c this January, has done her third 8b+, A muerte to the top in Vratsa. It did just take her four sessions. Next plan is to go to Italy or Spain and to do a 9a. In August, the 14-year-old Bulgarian got the silver in the Youth WCH in Combined. Earlier this year she has won two European Youth Cups in Bouldering. Noteworthy is also that Totkova was the only one to beat Oriane Bertone in a comp this year.

As have been mentioned before. IFSC has sent out invitation letters to Jernej Kruder and Alexey Rubtsov, regarding the Toulouse Olympic qualification event. Later IFSC deleted the max two country quota for that event. The reason for this was that Tokyo 2020 Sport Entry did not accept such limitation bu IFSC. This means that some countries will be allowed to send more than two with the consequence that probably Jernej Kruder, Alexey Rubtsov and others are out. "08/11/2011: At the conclusion of the 2019 World Cup, the IFSC Office opened the registration process for the athletes eligible to compete in the Combined Qualifier in Toulouse. During a revision of this process, Tokyo 2020 Sport Entry did not accept the limitation per country, so the IFSC Office had to freeze some athletes. The dilemma is that Jernej Kruder and Alexey Rubtsov did choose to not participate in the last World Cup as they had, based on the original rule, calculated that they were granted a spot in Toulouse. What will happen in regards to the appeal Team Japan versus IFSC, which relates to how many they will send to Toulouse is also not clear? It just might be that the only solution of this mess is to let like 23 athletes compete in Toulouse instead of just 20.

Zach Galla and Drew Ruana, who have done most of the WC's this year, have made good use of all their hard training and sent Squoze 8C in Red Rocks. Zach, in the picture, did actually do it on his first try on his second sessions and furthermore, he has done three 8B+' the last three weeks. "I’ve been thinking about climbing outside all competition season and I finally have the time to get out a bit. Just trying to enjoy climbing on some good boulders and put all the comp training to use!"

Jakob Schubert reports on Insta with a great pic by Johannes Mair that he has done the third ascent of Alex Megos' Perfecto Mundo 9b+ in Margalef, which was bolted by Chris Sharma. "What a day, after failing four times after the crux, two days ago even on the very last hard move above the lip it was an incredible relief to clip the chains of this amazing line today!" Jakob Schubert has been one of the very best competition climbers in the world for the last ten years. Including also his amazing track record on the rock, the Austrian is actually the only one that could challenge Adam Ondra of being the best climber in the world the last ten years.