hugo parmentier, who was #43 in the last Lead WC, has done his first 9a+, La moustache qui fâche in Entraygues. (c) Jan Novak "I have spent 6 days on it and 15 goes. It was my goal for this summer. The route is short and powerful. I really love this kind of style. I spent some days working on it with hardcore heat. Then with cooler temps it went. Yeahhh! For the end of the summer I need to find a multipitch/bouldering or single pitch project or maybe a bit of all, we'll see. Then in September some bouldering in Fontainebleau!"

Jorge Diaz-Rullo has done his second 9b, Alihulk extensión total sit start in Rodellar. "Undoubtedly a real fight of those who leave you empty. Many thanks to everyone in the area and to Jonatan (Flor) for the methods that took a lot of tries! It has been amazing! 1st rep after Jonatan and 4 days of work this year." The 19 year old is #3 in the route ranking and in the Combined ranking, he is a superior #1. (c) Javi Pec

Jonatan Flor, who previously this summer has done a 9a+ and two 9a's, has done the FA of Ali Hulk extension total sit start 9b in Rodellar. it is a link-up including a sit start of 15 moves into a new 9a+ extension. (c) Javi Pec

Speed and a Lead/Bouldering Combination have been provisionally included in Paris 2024. Here is the results of a poll, "Which two set of medals in 2014?", including some 900 unique respondents.The results shows very strongly that the 8a climbing community is in favor of skipping Speed and instead give the two set of medals to Lead & Bouldering. Which two set of medals in Paris 2024? 87 % Lead & Bouldering 11 % Speed & Lead/Bouldering Combined - as suggested by IFSC 01 % Bouldering & Speed 01 % Lead & Speed

Andrea Gennari Daneri from Pareti reports that Alfredo Webber (50) has done the FA of Solitary souls 8c+/9a in Arco. Originally it was a Nico Favresse project which later Lorenzo De Bonis rebolted. It is 35 m tall and 20 m overhanging with a 10+ m run-out. Video Two years ago the 159 cm tall did his first 9a commenting. "I’m close to 50 years and now I work full time in a quarry, five days a week, 8 hrs a day. I wake up at 7am, breakfast, then 20 kms drive to the quarry. Back home at 6pm. Two days a week I have training on my wall at home. It’s a 1h 30’ work, basically long sequences, with intervals of some harder moves; then some hangs on crimps. When I’m projecting something hard for Sunday I have to rest on Friday and Saturday, otherwise I get weak. I’m less powerful than 20 years ago, but now I know myself better and I manage better my energies."

The Olympic impact on the Lead World Cup is really bad. Only 50 % of the Top-7 ranked make and female participated in Briancon. In reality, this means that the Lead World Cup 2019 has significantly dropped in importance, which is really sad but also according to what we earlier have said. During the Boulder WC, the show up rate of the best was pretty good although Shauna Coxey did just go for two events. The obvious reason for the drop out is of course that doing too many comps in three disciplines will reduce the chances to qualify and getting a good result for Tokyo 2020. In one month time, the Combined WCH final will take place in Tokyo giving out Olympic ticket to the Top-7. There is a big risk that the ones who have qualified or know that they have made it to Toulouse will continue to skip the Lead World Cups. In the end, this means that there is a risk that the winners of the Lead WC will not participate in Tokyo 2020.

As there are many more female Speed specialist, in comparison to the male, participating in Combined in the World Championship, the female Speed performance will have less importance in the qualification. The reason for this is the multiplication system. Miho Nonaka and Mickael Mawem will probably win among the Lead/Boulder specialist and they will probably be ranked around #8 respectively #3 in Combined. In theory, this could make the female Speed Combined winner qualifying to the Top-8 final if she is lucky in bouldering at the same time as the male winner will not have a chance. The ones benefiting the most for this are the relatively slower female Speed climbers like Chaehyon Seo and most of the Slovenians as well as the Americans. In practice, it also means that the recommendation for the female is not to focus to much on Speed training the last weeks if the primary goal is to qualify to the Olympics.

The three male Japanese who got all the three medals in Briancon, in their first Lead WC in 2019, have not been selected to participate in the World Championship in Tokyo. Instead they send another six more qualified male which suggest that Japan, with the best boulderers in the world, will dominate at their home turf. Among the female, Japan is also one of the best nations and we predict we will see a new record Japanese domination in the Tokyo World Championship 11-21 August. Out of the 24 medals, the prediction is 9 medals and that they will get at least double as many country points as the runner up (Slovenia). The Top-7 in the Combined will qualify to the Olympics with a max 2 country quota, beside Japan who only have one as they will select their second person later. Here are the Top-10 who also will quality to the Olympics beside the Japan country quota. 1. Tomoa Narasaki JPN - Janja Garnbret SLO 2. Adam Ondra CZE - Miho Nonaka JPN 3. Jakob Schubert AUT - Chaehyon Seo KOR 4. Yoshiyuki Ogata* JPN - Akiyo Noguchi JPN 5. Kokoro Fujii JPN - Ai Mori JPN 6. Alex Megos GER - Jessica Pilz AUT 7. Kai Harada JPN - Shauna Coxey GBR 8. YuFei Pan CAN - YueTong Zhang CHI 9. Jernej Kruder SLO - Futaba Ito JPN 0. Jan Hojer GER - Mia Krampl SLO * Ogata has said on Insta that he has not been selected to participate on all three disciplines which is strange as he is in the official starting list.