The Youth World Champion started today in Arco with the Lead flash qualification. In the oldest boy category, Shuta Tanaka who was #3 in the last Lead WC, was #1 and all the three Japaneses were Top-8. Also in the youngest boy category there is a Japanese on top, Satone Yoshida, the only one topping both routes. In the youngest girl category, Ryu Nakagawa has also topped both qualification routes. In both these categories are all the three from Japan Top-4. Complete results It should also be mentioned that their best five juniors do not participate as they competed with good results in the senior world championship last week. Ai Mori (15) - #3 in the Lead WCH Futaba Ito (17) - #7 in the Combined WCH Nanako Kura (19) - #6 in the Bouldering WCH Nishida Hidemasa (16) - #1 in the Lead WC in Briancon Keita Dohi (18) - Youth Olympic winner last year

peter dawson has done his second 9a, Hubble at Raven Tor after some 15 sessions. It was set up by Ben Moon in in 1990 and until recently considered the first 8c+ in the world. Probably do to adaptation to the current grade inflation, it has been upgraded to 9a. "I thought it was harder than Rainshadow so yeah 9a." Here is the video of the 12 meters long route. (c) Jonathan Bean "I first tried Hubble last November because I wanted to see what it was all about, it’s historic and famous for having a very hard crux. The route is extremely short and after 10 moves you are into 7c climbing to the chains. I started making significant links in spring and by summer I was reaching the final moves. The sequence came together two weeks ago and it was my second 9a. Climbing it was one of my best experiences as I absolutely nailed the sequence and to make such a hard sequence feel quite solid was incredible! The key was gaining the finger strength which I did by trying in the route lots. Next I would like to try Mutation which is another classic 9a at Raven tor."

BJ Tilden, who previously has done four 9A FAs, has repeated his first 9a, White Lightning in Wild Iris. "I always knew this link up was Just too obvious to ignore. I wasn't sure I would ever be ready for another battle with moonshine, but after Ryan Sewell Opened up the link I had to check it out. It's awesome! More different than I thought it would be, and the moonshine crux is still a bastard! I really don't know how much the Heart Full start adds to the grade. It certainly stiffens it up a little!"

Here is the Olympic winning odds I would have suggested if having worked on a betting company. 1. Tomoa Narasaki 1.9 - Janja Garnbret 1.4 2. Alex Megos 4 - Akiyo Noguchi 5 3. Jakob Schubert 4.5 - Japan selection 6 4. Adam Ondra 5 - Shauna Coxsey 9 5. Japan selection 8 - Mia Krampl 10 6. Sean McColl 50 - Jessica Pilz 15 7. Jongwon Chon 55 - Chaehyon Seo 30 8. Others 30 - Others 20 It should be mentioned that Chaehyon Seo will not be able to participate in Toulouse as she has not done any Boulder WCs in 2019. Her last chance to qualify to Tokyo is at the Asian Championship. If she does not make it there, she wold have great chances to get the tripartite ticket. Megos is second as it seems he has not trained Speed much but should be able to get below seven seconds. On the other hand, Ondra is placed fourth due to his Speed ability. Possibly, it would be good for Adam for, the first time ever in his competition career, be classed like an underdog. Rashat Kaibullin, or any of the best Speed climbers are not listed, as they will have no chance of winning although great chances of getting the bronze, due to the multiplication format.

Alexander Rohr has recorded his fifth 9a, The Illusionist" in Flatanger. (c) Jon Solberg Høyland "I think i always had the level to do it. But it was very hard test mentally. Sometimes I could not climb on the route for more than a week because it was wet. Now I finally was lucky. It‘s a route from Adam. It is very good and very hard so I never wanted to bail. I basically never bail, and it was one of the routes I always wanted to do. A real hard route and not a random 9a somewhere from someone and no one knows if it is really is hard. I went to Flatanger last year to do it. Well, it was either raining heavily or super hot. I was close and had to leave empty handed. This July I came back, and again, it was more than 30 degrees and the route was wet on most of the days. So I had the plan B to come back in late August, and here I am."

Lacrux has made an interview with Adam Ondra in regards him not getting an Olympic ticket as he was called standing on a bolt. He says that his plan was to focus on Speed but instead he has to prepare for Toulouse. He confirms that somebody made a protest against him for standing on a bolt and counter-protest were filled in. "From my point of view, it was at least questionable, whether I really stood on the bolt or not. I have looked at different video shots from different angles. From what I saw, I couldn’t say for sure that I really stood on it or not. Of course, it is not easy for the referee to decide within a few minutes and I certainly do not take it personally."

1. Tomoa Narasaki 2 - 1 = 2 2. Rishat Khabullin 1 - 8 = 8 3. Meichi Narasaki 5 - 2 = 10 4. Mickael Mawem 4 - 4 = 16 5. Kokoro Fujii 6 - 3 = 18 5. Kai Harada 3 - 6 = 18 7. Jakob Schubert 7 - 5 = 35 8. Alex Megos 8 - 7 = 56 (injured) Complete results As Alex Megos got a finger injury on the first boulder, it is expected that Jakob Schubert will win in Lead. If so in practice Tomoa Narasaki has secured the gold after his super impressive boulder round doing all three problems in just four tries. His younger brother Meichi was #2 in boulder win one top and three zones and could in theory win overall. If Kai Harada is second in Lead, he will probably be #2 overall as long as Meichi is fourth or worse. Actually as it stands, Rishat Khaibullin has a chance to get the bronze overall although being dead last but ahead of Megos not participating.

Tomoa Narasaki was superior becoming second in Speed, first in Boulder and second in Lead, getting just points. Jakob Schubert was the only one to Top in the Lead and got 35 points overall. The big sensation was that Rishat Khaibullin got the bronze after having won Speed and put on a great fight skipping two clips which just made him fifth in Lead. (An interview is coming up and actually he deos not consider him as a Speed specialist.) It should also be mentioned that he was super lucky in the two most critical Speed events. First he won against big favorite Bassa Mawem due to a fall and later he benefitted from a technical incident. In the re-run he set a personal best beating the world champion Fossali with 0.03 seconds. Fourth was Kai Harada, putting on a spectacular show in bouldering but at the same time a bit unlucky as he touched two Tops but could not stick it. (c) Vladek Zumr Complete results 1. Tomoa Narasaki 2. Jakob Schubert 3. Rishat Khaibullin 4. Kai Harada 5. Meichi Narasaki 6. Kokoro Fujii 7. Mickael Mawem 8. Alex Megos (injured)

One of the biggest sensations in Hachioji was actually how much progress in Speed the Boulder/Lead specialists had made. Tomoa Narasaki set a new personal best with 6.15 which had put him #19 in Hachioji and actually #15 in Chamonix. Based on all the personal best, it might be that most of participated will go below seven seconds and Tomoa below six. It should further more be mentioned that Rishat Khaibullin does not consider himself as a Speed specialist only training that discipline once a week and thus having a personal best of 5.83. As Ondra’s personal best is 7.87, it might be most productive for him to actually skip Speed training if it turns out he can not get close to seven seconds pretty soon. Another twist is that some years ago, we asked some of the best Speed climbers how fast they thought the non-specialists could run. In retro-perspective they were dead wrong and all the assumptions that Speed will be almost emberrasing to watch, as 8a also said, was dead wrong. It just might be that Narasaki could get well under six seconds in Tokyo and win all three disciplines.