The next possibility to make it to Tokyo 2020, is to make it to the Top-20 overall in the Combined ranking excluding the ones that already made it in Hachioji. Further more, most probably no Japanese will be allowed to compete as it is not a qualifying event for them. In practice, this means that being around Top-30 to 35 should be good enough. With just one Speed event and three Lead events remaining, one could speculate that a total score of around 6 million for the female and 12 million for the male would be good enough to make it to Toulouse. From the current overall rankings we can see that 10 million are needed for the female and 25 million for the male. What makes it impossible to come up with a real figure is that we do not know; A. how many of the already qualified in Hachioji, B. the ones already below 1 million, C. the once without a chance will participate in the last events. It has already been a long season and two more European Championships are coming up. It just might be that we will see relatively few Combined climbers participating in the last events in China and Japan. The good news is of course, on the other hand, that the Speed event in Xiamen will be like a free ticket to Toulouse. It should be mentioned that the last Boulder event in Vail was already almost like a free ticket to Toulouse that were lost for many. The number of Combined participants in this event were around half of the other Boulder World Cups. To sum up, scoring 100 * 100 * 400 or = 4 million for a Boulder/Lead specialist. A Speed specialist will get the same scoring by 1 000 * 1 000 * 4. This means that it is predicted that at least 2 + 2 Speed specialist will make it to Toulouse.

Jorge Diaz-Rullo, who this summer has done his first three 9b's, has done his seventh 9a+, Seta ibérica in Cuenca. "Brutal connection! I wanted to do it after a couple of tries quite close! Now for the ones that remain! The 19-year-old is the superior 8a ranking leader. (c) Javi Pec

Toru Nakajima, who previously has done five famous 8C', has free-soloed a route just to the left of the 500 Shomyo waterfalls. Big parts of the route were totally wet and in some sequences, he actually climbed in the waterfall! 8a has a policy to not publish free-solos as we do not want to promote such activities. However, Toru's ascent goes in the same category as Alex Honnold's Freerider.

Moritz Welt, who did his first 9a two years ago, has done his fourth, Styleboys in Frankenjura. "Surprise ascent - 3 more tries after Sever and Sick Boy - perfect endurance linkup. Two days later the 18-year-old did his sixth 8B+, Urlaub fürs Gehirn also in Frankenjura. "Second ascent. Fabi's Masterpiece!" In the Combined ranking game, the young German is #2. The picture by Lars Decker is from a project Moritz has been working on for three weeks. It is an old Frankenjura line so it should be rather hard which possibly has to wait until spring as he travels to Spain on Thursday.

Adam Ondra, who will compete in Kranj this weekend, has done his 12th 8C, Ghost Rider in Moravský kras. "2nd ascent after Martin Stranik. Amazing problem, lower start is waiting..."

Jesús Muñoz (Chuchi), who this spring did his first 9a, has done his second 8C in Hoya Moros, Eterno Legado. The FA was done by Alberto Rocasolano as an 8B+/C but later a hold broke making it harder. It is located at 2 400m altitude one hour from Salamanca with a 90 min approach. In total there are some 850 boulders up there (c) Víctor Rodríguez "After some rainy weeks, the weather was better and I could go back to Hoya Moros. Although it was a little wet day, the cold temperature counteracted it. After some attempts falling into the last movements, in my last try, I was able to link the 20 movements to sent it. It has been a long process from July to complete all the lines and combinations of this rock. I am very happy to have finished this process before the snow cover everything. However, before this happens I hope to send more projects in this area. Let's keep going!"

Adam Ondra has made some comments in regardards to the forum thread, Qui 9a+ by Adam Ondra. As usual Ondra tries to give respect to the pioneers who first broke the 9a level although they were more modest in their grading. In retro persepctive it just might be that Qui from 1996 by Stefan Fürst was the second 9a+ in the world. "I did not ask Stefan whether he gave it 8c+ or 9a, but the whole confusion is also created not only by tougher standards (8c+ back then being todays 9a), but also due to unclear conversion between UIAA and French grades back then in 90's. Now it is set that 11-/11 is 8c+, 11 is 9a. I have never tried Akira, but out of he routes that I tried or did from 90's, I think that Hubble (1990), Action Directe (1991) and Om (1992 - 1 repetition) are more or less the same level, which means low or mid level 9a's. Weisse Rose (1994 - 1 repetition), Open Air (1996 - 1 repetition) and Qui (1996 - 1 repetition) are obviously step higher, and in todays standards might be at least low-level 9a+. Note - I have not upgraded Weisse Rose when I did it in 2009, but retrospectively thinking, it is worth consideration. This could make Weisse Rose the world's hardest route back then. Note2 - It Is unclear how much easier Qui was when Stefan did it compared to how it is now. My personal guess is that it has not changed that much. Note3 - Stefan's route X-Large in Massone has also seen only one repetition, even though he graded it only 8c in 1996. Being in the middle of the busiest crags in Italy, it is interesting... Quite an achievement back then without modern shoes that are good for heelhooking."

Wojtek Pełka, who just turned 20, has done his first 9a, Black Cobra (2) in Herculane. Adam Ondra put it up last year saying that there is a possible extension and variations... "to be continued". "What an amazing wall! So glad to repeat this endurance monster with some spicy long pulls. I was in Baile Herculane for two weeks trying the route for 6 days since I've realized it's the only alternative in this quite virgin area. I wasn't sure if it was possible to send it at first sight, in spite of doing all the moves. But my girlfriend and friend persuaded me to give it a chance. As at got cooler - around 20 degrees I managed to send it.

1. Paul Jenft FRA 44 - Naile Meignan FRA 34 2. Hector Bazan Martin ESP 34 - Miriam Fogu ITA 24 3. Aberto Gines Lopez ESP 33 - Vanda Michalkova SVK 23 Complete results

France got three golds and another two medals at the European Youth Championship in Bouldering in Brixen. Runner up was Austria with two golds and one silver. Surprisingly Slovenia got empty-handed as also Germany. As a matter of a fact, Slovenia did just have three Top-8 results and Germany two. This can be compared with eleven Top-6 results for France. Overall the competition was a great success for the route setters with 17 out 18 almost perfect rounds. Oriane Bertone and Paul Jenft, both from France, were the only ones topping all their 16 boulders.