The biggest sensation in the World Championship in Hachioji was that Rishat Khaibullin got the bronze in Combined. Last year he was #23 in Combined after being #22 in Speed, #53 in Lead and #116 in Bouldering. In 2013, he was #8 in the Lead respectively #16 in Speed in the Youth WCH. In his three Speed WCs in 2019 he has improved from 6.88 - 6.47 - 6.15 and then he did 6.05 in Hachioji Speed followed by 5.83 in Combined. This is just sensational and understanding he just trains Speed like once a week as his nearest Speed wall is like 200 km away, we can rest assure he is far from his full potential. "My father was mountaineer in USSR, and when I was 6 years old he brought me to sport climbing. I am not a speed climber. But in Kazakhstan we climb all disciplines, so every comp I competed in all disciplines. Then I started training speed record wall. Actually in 2014 I have been training speed a lot, but now just once a week, other days boulder and lead." The Kazakhstan lives in Czech Republic and Martin Stranik confirms his bad Speed training conditions. "He is already three years in CZ. One year in Brno and three years in Prague. It is very interesting that he is such a good speed climber because it not so easy to train speed in CZ. We still don not have standard speed route, just two none standardized in Brno 200 km from Praguse. Rishat is a really good guy, a bit shy and very friendly, I really like him. Good point is also that he is really strong in small edges, what could bring him good result in boulder and lead." (c) Vladek Zumr Emontana.cz has published an interview and strangely enough he founds Speed awfully boring: "I don't like speed at all. I enjoy much more difficulty and boulder, but speed got me on the podium because I finished seventh. But the discipline is awfully boring, you're ruining your fingers, nails, running the same way over and over again, but it gives you a sense of speed."

00: Sohta AmaGasa JPN 04: Nichol Tomas THA - Oriane Bertone FRA Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke Oriane Bertone from France took her second gold in the Youth World Champion. As she has been superior in the Euro Youth Lead Cup as well as being #3 in the 8a boulder ranking, her both golds did not come as a surprise. It should also be mentioned that the boulder setters have almost been spot during the first days.

Eddie Fowke has gotten a nice picture of Oriane Bertone, the queen of the Arco Youth World Champion in Arco. In total, the 14 year old has done 44 boulders 8A to 8B+, put of which the first when she was just nine years old. She lives in Reunion island and here is a video including a mini-interview with her 18 months ago when she did her 8B+.

James Webb has had a productive week in Rocklands doing three 8B+' as well as Spray of light 8C, which also Giuliano Cameroni did. James is #1 in the ranking game at a new all time high 8a score at 12 180 points. Giuliano is #2 at 12 020 points. In total James has now recorded 1 536 boulders out of which 10, 8C and harder just the last year. On the picture by Keenan Takahashi he does Parzival

Jorge Diaz-Rullo has done the FA of Patanics 9b in Rodellar. It is a 60 m steep link up of three routes; Pata Negra 8c, the crux of No pain no gain 9a+ and the end of Botanics 8b+. "The most impressive line that I have ever climbed! I didn't think I could do it until the last bolt. Brutal amazing days with the best people! Thank you!" (c) Javi Pec The 19 year old is for the first time ever, #1 in the ranking game having done three 9b's this summer. In the Combined ranking game, the Spaniard has been the superior #1 for more than a year.

Jonatan Flor has done the FA of the 60 m long Apocalipsis de la Gioconda 9b in Rodellar which is a 25 m extension tp Apocalipsis an 8c+/9a he did the FA of last week. It took him around one month of effort to take it down. (c) Guillermo Dominguez

hugo parmentier, who this summer has done both his first 9a as well as his first 9a+, has done Trip Tik Tonic 9a in Gorges du Loup. (c) Olivier Moise "It took me 8 days and 17 try. This is my pure anti style. I am really happy to have done a hard route in that style. Same day I try than did 8c 3rd go, 8b+ (tried once before) and 8a+ flash. That was a surreal day after days of struggling in one single route. Now I go back to Paris for school and I will train and climb in Font till January." How can you explain your recent progress? I think it is a result of a year of serious and hard training. But I think it's also a mindset. I really want to progress in climbing and that my main goal in parallel of my studies. I struggled with finger injuries the past years. Now I am starting to know myself better and to be careful.

The results in the Female Youth B boulder qualification is yet another confirmation that one more zone is needed in bouldering. Out of the 89 participants 25 girls = 28 % did not get any zone. Imagine how these girls, some of them travelling 20+ hours to reach Arco, have to explain to friends and relatives that they did not even enter the scoreboard. By getting one zone you could end at #44. As four girls topped all four boulders we can not just say that the boulders were too hard. The problem is that there is a big difference in between the best and the ones on the lower half. As it has been the same problem in all previous boulder comps, it is very hard to understand that IFSC do not add one more zone at least in the youth competitions.