In 2017, Romain Desgranges (37) won overall in Lead and last year he got the bronze. This year he has competed for the first time in Bouldering and Speed in order to try to qualify to Tokyo. The consequence of this is that he has totally lost his shape in Lead being in average #25 which was also his result in the World Championship. In the Combined ranking he ended #56 out of 71.

1. Japan 1 695 2. Slovenia 988 3. Korea 758 4. USA 612 5. Austria 525 6. Czech Republic 484 7. France 440 8. Italy 434 Team Japan's superior win in the Lead World Cup is just a continuation of their progress the last years. They have been the best nation in Boulder for many years and that they now are on top also in Lead, some would consider frightening. The epicentrum for competition climbing has since IFSC started with World Cups been southern Europe. Now with Korea also coming strong including also the best result for China, the centrum has moved to Asia. It should be mentioned that both Austria and France have not sent full teams to all events as their best athletes had already qualified for either directly to Tokyo or to Toulouse. On the other hand, many of the best from Japan have also missed some events but their substitutes have been equally strong it seems. The result from the Lead WC in 2019 suggest that if all team could send as many as they want, Japan just might have gotten almost half of the semifinalists.

Zach Galla, the US Combined Champion who did most of the WC's until Hachioji where he was #31 in Bouldering, has done two 8B+'; Echale in Clear Creek Canyon and Mirror Reality in RMNP. "Sick one! Fell on the jump almost every try for the first two days. Hooked it up minutes before the snow melted all over the crux holds today!" Michael Rosato

Seb Bouin reports on Insta that he has done Jorge Diaz-Rullo's Patanics in Rodellar suggesting a down grade to 9a+. "For me it feels closer to 9a/+. Yet the route is 100% my style, that's why my opinion is to propose a downgrade to a 9a+." (c) Julia Cassou Ten days ago he also did the FA of Detectives giving it 9a. ”The King Line of Rodellar in this Grade. Bolted by Chris Sharma and Dani Andrada. Seb's trip to Rodellar started with a broken car. Then the rain come and later he had to go to emergency to remove a metal piece from a quick draw from his eye. "Nothing will perturb a climbing trip !" The French is #2 in the ranking game after Jorge.

Climb Kalymnos presents Heroes, which is a new sector with 25 routes which mainly have been developed by Aris T. (c) Kieran J Duncan "The crag consists of three small caves connected to each other with vertical walls. There is a big variety of climbing styles, from very steep cave climbing on big holds or some tufas to grey walls, off-vertical pocketed walls, short and steep athletic routes, and so on."

"1.2Selection Criteria The Athlete Quota within each gender will be filled from: 1)the highest ranked Athletes from the IFSC Combined World Cup Ranking as at 01 November 2019; and/or 2)where following (1) the Athlete Quota remains incomplete, the highest ranked Athletes from the 2019 World Championship Combined Ranking,in each case a)excluding any Athletes who have a confirmed Quota Place for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games following the 2019 Combined World Championship; and b)subject toa National Quota of two (2) Athletes." A. Should Japan be allowed to send anyone to Toulouse? B. Should countries with one already qualified to Tokyo be allowed to send one, two or everyone within the Top-20 criteria? In other sports with Olympic qualifying events, the countries are allowed to send everyone who qualified, not just a max quota.

Clément Lechaptois has had a great month doing two 8B+'s in Colorado and his second 8C, Foundations Edge in Fionnay which was opened by Dave Graham in 2013. "It's a huge overhang of perfect granite. The hard part consists of 10 intense movements on edges and delicate feet deplacements. I started to try FE last fall and thought I was close to do it because I was able to do the hands moves pretty well but it was actually the feet moves that gave me the more troubles. I had a busy year at university so I couldn't come back there at that time. Just coming back in pretty good shape from Colorado, I needed two more sessions to climb this incredible boulder. Respect to Dave for the FA."

It has been confirmed by an email from IFSC to the federations that Japan has selected Kai Harada and Miho Nonaka to take part in Tokyo 2020.

Martin Urrutia skips 8c+ and does his first 9a, Psikoterapia in Valdegobia. This year the 19-year-old Spaniard got his first senior podium. "The route is in a place where I usually climb frequently. It is a place where I do well. I like that stile so I decided that it would be a nice challenge because it has only three previous ascents. I started trying the route at the beginning of September, but I broke an edge of the route and I was not able to climb regularly afterwards. I had to wait until it was fixed. Finally I have been practicing and trying it for 2 months and 16 attempts. I have enjoyed the route a lot. I was progressing in each attempt and it felt very well psychologically."