Vadim Timonov, #6 in the Moscow in April, has done his fourth 8C, Black Eagle Assis in Rocklands, on his fifth bouldering day in a row. Two days before he watched a Paul Robinson video and flashed his third 8B, Hipster whale. (c) Nikita Tsarev "I made a lot of classic boulders in the last trip here. Now I am more focused on hard boulders. I knew what to prepare for, what I need for good shape here. Now I climb 5 days in a row and I feel great. I have a big list. continue tomorrow I will stay here till 22 of July. I already watched a few boulders. Finnish line, Living large, Spray of light etc. I think I will try all maybe without Living large. This is an excellent boulder, but a problem in the organization. You need a lot of mats, supporting, and it is very difficult to gather people to go so far."

Irina Kuzmenko, who did her first 8A just some eights months ago and who was #14 in the Moscow WC in April, has done Fragile Steps 8B (A+) in Rocklands. The Russian did her first 8A just some eight months ago. "it was my first normal rock trip in life, before I never have been on boulders. I was just without any goal and motivation! Happy that I found my passion finally. Me and my boyfriend Vadim (Timonov) just changed a bit of our style of climbing training before the rocks. It’s started to be more crimpy, also included a bit of campusing and maximal pull ups. For us really important to keep the power, because after Africa we’ll compete in World Championship in Tokyo. This African trip we was waiting so much and we plan to stay here almost one month! Hope it’s enough to do all the projects, but in my experience it’s never enough time."

The male final started with great climbing by Meichi Narasaki falling in a dynamic move to the top. As the next two guys, Alex Megos and Yufei Pan quite easily topped it was obvious that the route was way to easy. Luckily, for the route setters, all the following did mistakes including Tomoa Narasaki who seemed to flashing an 8a, until he slipped as he stood on the rope. In the end, Sascha Lehmann won and he was also the one who executed the final moves in the best style. Complete results

After poor route setting for the male, it did get even worse for the female as the first seven did fell on the same move. Then Janja Garnbret showed up and just locked off statically and it was like she was using another set of holds. Confirming the possibly worst route setting ever, even with so much over capacity, she fell on the next move some ten moves from the top. In practice this meant we got the same result as in the semi meaning 15 year old Chaehyon Seo was runner up ahead of 16 year old Ai Mori. Both did not look nervous at all, just another training route in the gym, was their approach. Complete results

The last WC in Villars did show that IFSC need to act in order to better find the correct difficulty. Obviously, the route setters have hard times to keep up the increasing new standards for the male and that more female are below 155 cm tall. The easy solution, as have been mentioned before, is that best that did not qualify to the semi respectively to the final are asked to join the route setting team. If the ranked #10 in the semi would have just tried the final route, most probably, they would ave found out the the male route was too easy and that the female crux was way too hard.

Gabriela Vrablikova, who 20 months ago had 8b as her personal best, has done her first 9a, Sever the Wicked Hand in Frankenjura. In between 2015 and 2017 she did 15 WCs and her best result was #26. "I have changed a coach and we started to work on everything! I have started to go rock climbing almost every weekend this year. I truly believe in strength of mind and I knew I could climb this route. It took 15 tough sessions though. I work four days a week. Training on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. One session each. Mostly boulder or some exercising, no time for lead climbing indoor. After training ice bathtub as often as I have the courage. It is the best and fastest regeneration for me. And yes, I still hate it! Weekends on rocks. I have holiday starting next weekend and I am super excited to finally go to Ratikon! I want to do sport multi-pitches, Silbergeier is my dream but I have no clue about it so far. Then Chiara (Hanke) recommended me another 9a here in Frankenjura and then something in Spain for sure. I am still growing, I will not set any limits to myself."

Here is the Olympic prediction #9 and Tomoa Narasaki is back as 1. As there are many of the best female Speed specialists doing Combined, it is likely that one of them will qualify to Tokyo. By winning the Speed qualification and being almost last in Boulder and Lead, she will most probably advance to the final. Another victory there and she can not get worse then fifth and actually bronze is possible with 1 - 8 - 8. So Aunak Jaubert is put as #4 but almost as good chances have Anna Tsyganova. A maximum of two male and female from Japan are allowed to participate and it seems the biggest risk for any of the mentioned ones not being Top-4 is that they are just #3 in Japan in the qualifications. 1. Janja Garnbret SLO - Tomoa Narasaki JPN 2. Miho Nonaka JPN - Adam Ondra CZE 3. Akiyo Noguchi JPN - Jakob Schubert AUT 4. Jessica Pilz AUT - Kokoro Fujii JPN 5. Aunak Jaubert FRA - Jan Hojer GER 6. Shauna Coxsey GBR - Manuel Cornu FRA 7. Julia Chanourdie FRA - Alex Megos GER 8. Petra Klingler - Yufei Pan CHI

Natsuki Tanii (15) was ranked #8 in Villars but she should have been #5. IFSC need to sit down and rewrite the + rule. Natsuki reached hold 35 but as she is very short and the hold 34 had a bigger incut she opted to several times go statically to hold 36, without getting a +. All the other, who seemed taller, did use hold 35 and as they did a movement towards the next hold they did get a +. From the picture we can see that hold 34 is closer to hold 36 and it feels very strange that you can only get a + by moving from hold 35. I mean, as she had used hold 35 and it turns out that the best sequence for her is using hold 34, this must be allowed to do so and get a +. For me this is totally unfair.

During the male final it looked like the wall was heated up as the best qualifiers started to fight even low down and in the end Stefano Ghisolfi and Jakob Schubert were not even close to make it to the final. Winner of the semi was Tomoa Narasaki and in total four from Japan made it through. Then Janja Garnbret dropped her chalk bag before clipping the first bolt and had to fight hard even in the middle section. Later she was trying to brush the sweat from her hands on her shorts. Strangely the commentators did not notice her extreme situation. Once moving up on the upper more crimpy section, she put in her normal cruise control again becoming the only one topping out. Runner up, also in cruise control, was 15 year old Chaehyon Seo from Korea and this was the very moment a new star was born. Previously we had een Jessica Pilz falling at the second crux but as a matter of a fact she did seem to have hard times also on some easier moves.

The biggest sensation in the qualification of the Lead World Cup in Villars was that Romain Desgranges, #3 last year overall, ended #31. Other then that, all big names made it through to the Top-26 semifinal with Alex Megos (c) Eddie Fowke and Jakob Schubert topping both routes. Japan had six guys Top-18 with Tomoa Narasaki as #11. Among the female, Janja Garnbret was the only one to top both routes and she did it in great style. In the Top-10, there were four from Japan and three from Slovenia. Interesting from the Combined perspective was that Shauna Coxsey was #20 and Petra Klingler #26 meaning they qualified to the semi tomorrow. Complete results