NEWS

Two more proofs in favor of Janja in Chamonix
This still shows that Molly has not control of hold 42 before she tried to move towards hold 43 and got the 42+. In other words, she is holding 41.5 and could just have gotten 41.5+ trying to move from that hold. Further more, in order to get a + you need to, "effect a progressive movement of their centre of mass or hips; and". Unfortunately, it is impossible to understand if Molly did a progressive movement or not from the video but several coaches as well as athletes on site, say they did not think so. As a matter of a fact, as Janja matched on hold 42 in a controlled way her centre of mass was much closer to hold 43 than Molly's.

Biographie 9a+ by Jorge Diaz-rullo (19)
Jorge Diaz-Rullo has done his fourth 9a+, Biographie in Cรฉรผse. Including also one 9b and one 8C boulder etc, the 19 year old is the superior Combined ranking game leader. "For me is a dream the route. Amazing place, experience, process and all the people that support me. At finish, I was working 8 days and I used the other betas for the boulders. THANK YOU! MERCI!"

Janja Garnbret, who never has missed a Lead final, was cruising as normal but suddenly she just lost control and fell ending #9. Among the male, Adam Ondra did get the highest but also here we saw several big names dropping out like; Stefano Ghisolfi, Romain Desgranges, Sascha Lehmann and Domen Skofic. Complete results The female finals start 20.50 followed by the male 21.50.

Garnbret is out due to new strange clipping rule
Janja Garnbret was given 42 and was ranked #9, below Molly Thompson-Smith who got 42+. Molly reached hold 42 but found out it was impossible to clip and the reversed to 41 but as she could not clip she moved to 42 again where she tried to go upwards. The rule is very clear, saying you can only be rewarded a hold from where you can clip. This means Molly could have been given 41 and ended #11. In theory, one could argument that it could be possible to clip from hold 42. In any case, it would be totally impossible to clip from hold 43 meaning she could not be given 42+. Video of Molly's last moves. It has been confirmed that the Slovenians made an appeal but obviously the judges said their interpreting of the new 2019 rule is that it is OK to get 42+ even if 42 is as far your are allowed to clip. It should also be mentioned that the route setters did say it was possible from hold 42. "(a) where a Safety Hold has been marked (the โ€œBlue Crossโ€), scoring is โ€œstoppedโ€ at the marked hold until the relevant protection point has been clipped. (b) in all other circumstances, scoring stops when a climber has let go with both hands of the last hold from which it was possible to clip the last unclipped Protection Point." In practice this means that if Molly had gotten 43 she could actually have started moving with the left hand and gotten 43+ as long as the other hand remains at hold 42. It should be mentioned that before the article was published two experienced coaches as well as one judge said that they had not interpreted the new rule as it was used. Once all athletes understand this, there just might be safety problems as you can push much further without clipping than how it was in 2018.

Adam Ondra was last out and in his normal fast style he executed and once he passed Alex Megos high point he got all the 12 000 spectators behind him. Then he waved for more support and continued towards the top falling but as he said afterwards, there were too small as the route setters possibly wanted to avoid tops as in Villars last week. Ondra will skip Briancon and instead train for the WCH i Tokyo in August. Complete results

Small Box 8A+ by Isabelle Faus
Isabelle Faus has done her 37th 8A+, Small Box in Coal Creek. "Itโ€™s a fun climb with a couple hard moves off a bad crimp and a tricky toe hook. Been having a fun summer climbing on this boulder and in the park. Iโ€™m psyched to go Africa in a couple weeks, hopefully I can do a few more things in the mountains before we go." The picture is from Spread eagle in RMNP, her 8A #55. The last 12 months she has also done one 8B+ and eight 8B's and she is #1 in the 8a ranking game.

Chaeyon Seo (15) win but route setting mistake again
Five female did fall on the same move and and in fact, the Top-3 had also the same score in the semi, so their internal ranking was based on the qualification results. In the end, 15 year old Chaehyon who was #2 last weekend, won as she had the best qualification result topping both routes. It should be mentioned that Jessica Pilz first got a better final scoring but later she was not recorded to have control of the crux hold, so was #3. Runner-up was YueTong Zhang (16) who was #9 in Villars. Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke

Big anticlimax again in the Speed final. First both female in the small final fell so they had to do have a re-run. Later Elizaveta Ivanova made a false start so YiLing Song could drop of after three meters and start celebrating. Among the male, we saw false starts in two out of the four quarter finals and one big slip. Then in the small final there was a fall and in the final QiXina Zhong had a slip and Alifan Muhammad won. Complete results To sum up, there is sometimes just to little excitement in the Speed final. What is we have a false start in the Speed final in Tokyo. The only solution for this would be to have at least four competitors at the same time and further more, the routes should be much closer together. Imagine how strange it would look if we only had two competitors in the 100 meters final.

Double tops by Ondra, Garnbret and Seo in Chamonix
Adam Ondra, who skipped the WC in Villars last week due to a wrist injury, was the only male who topped both routes. Surprisingly, Tomoa Narasaki, who won the semi last week and then was #6 in the final, was #28 and failed to make it to the semi. Anyhow, Japan got five into the semi. Among the female, 15 year old Chaeyon, who was #2 in Villars, was together with Janja Garnbret the one one making double. Slovenia got four to the semi. Interesting, Janja come with a strong statement in regards the poor route setting last week on Insta; "Anyway, I have to say that Iโ€™m disappointed about the routesetting in the finals. This is not what we have been training for. Where are hard lead routes where you have to fight hard against the pump and not just climbing routes for the show?" Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke