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.

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 “Blue Cross”), scoring is “stopped” 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.

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

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

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 I’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

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.

In February, R & I published and open letter saying The chipping in Ten Sleep needs to stop. As a matter of a fact, the extensive chipping carried out by Louie Anderson and others, had stopped almost one year before the open letter was published. Louie has also said it was wrong to chip and he regretted to do so. Now Louie has reported on Facebook. "On the nights of July 1st and 2nd, a group of climbers from Wyoming and elsewhere decided to remove some of my routes. Dozens of routes have been affected and have either removed bolts, filled in pockets, smashed holds, or some combination of all of these. There are also several routes that have spray painted red padlocks attached to the first bolts to act as a notice to climbers that they may be getting on a route that potentially has modified holds." Here is a Statement on behalf of the guys who chopped bolts, filled in pockets and put a red locker on some of the first bolts. It should be mentioned that 8a think chipping is totally wrong and as a matter of a fact in the scorecard you can mark routes as "chipped" in order to warn others. Further more, we hope this will make future equippers stop chipping in order to officially have opened a chipped route. A further step would be for topo producers to actually mark chipped routes in their guide books. Personally I have hard time understanding why R & I published this letter in the first place asking for chipping to stop as it had already been stopped one year ago. Further more, I think it is wrong that sabotage existing routes like this. There exist thousands and thousands chipped routes in the world also up to 9a grade etc. If this chopping practice would spread it would be very bad for the climbing community.

Alizée Dufraisse has done Ray of Light which is her third 8B in Rocklands the last twelve months. More info to come. Allizée won the Youth World Champion in 2003. In 2004 she started pole vaulting and in 2008 she was the French Champion at 4.35 but missed the Olympic games. Then back to climbing comps again where she was #3 in a Lead WC in 2009 when she won in Bouldering in Arco Rock Master. Including two 9a's etc, she is #2 in the 8a All Time ranking game, meaning she should be considered Top-10 of all female sport climbers in the history.

For some reason, most athletes in the Speed qualifications climbed slower than in Villars last week. Fastest among the high ranked female Lead and Boulder specialists was Futaba Ito at 9.39. Among the male, Tomoa Narasaki was fastest among the best high ranked Combined climbers at 6.51. Interesting is Adam Ondra's 8.01 which can be compared with his 9.32 in his first ever Speed event during WCH in Innsbruck last year. Complete results (c) Eddie Fowke