Isabelle Faus reports on Insta that Keenan Takahashi has done The Story of Two World’s 8C in Cresciano.

Bassa Mawem won the Speed qualification in Moscow at 5.699 where seven did sub six seconds, which is a new record. However, most interesting in regards Tokyo 2029 was his brother Mickael doing 6.344. Other than that, Keita Dohi did 6.831 and Manuel Cornu 6.900 among the non-Speed specialist. Complete results Among the female, Iuliia Kaplina was superior with 7.464. The fastest time by the non-Speed specialists were Elena Krasovskaia with 9.051 and Petra Klingler with 9.539. The biggest improvement in comparison to last year was done by Janja Garnbret with 10.050. Noteworthy is that some of the big names continue to struggle with mid 11 seconds like; Shauna Coxsey and Fanny Gibert.

Mickael Mawem is currently totally superior among the non-Speed specialists. In Bouldering he is #16 in the world ranking. As the Combined score is done through calculation, the winner of a discipline in the qualification in Tokyo is guaranteed to make it to the Top-8 final. Well in the final, placing #4 in bouldering and winning Speed, Mickael is most likely getting a medal. The twist in this story is that it is probably harder for Mickael to actually qualify to the Olympics rather then to get a medal. The reason for this is that beeing the fastest among the non-Speed specialist is not so much worth during the qualifying process. Mickael was #23 in Moscow and possibly ten of these guys will compete in at least two Boulder and Lead events. This means he would get a multiplication factor of #11 at the same time most of his competitors for Tokyo will get a factor of 15 to 33. Thus, the Speed importance is only critical when all the Speed specialists have been taken out from the result list, which will happen in Tokyo.

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Ett inlägg delat av Vertical-Life Climbing (@vertical.life.climbing) 10 Apr 2019 kl. 5:19 PDT

From the Moscow starting list we can see that the Narasaki brothers and Akiyo Noguchi will not participate. Further more, all top guys but Adam Ondra will do Speed. Interesting that three of the Top-2 in Meiringen seem to think that "less could be more" in the very long 2019 season ahead of them. The Narasaki brothers and Noguchi are back in track for Chongqing 27/4 doing both disciplines but Ondra has not yet signed up for any Speed World Cup.

Two weeks ago I read an article saying Kids skiing gets smarter. The explanation is physical activity but also learning how to concentrate and improved coordination etc. Personally I would say that possibly it also relates to all the decisions the skiing kids have to do going down the slope. During the years I have been chatting with dozens of kids 12 - 15 years climbing very hard and almost always I have been shocked about how smart and mature they seem. It could just be that all the problem solving situation they have faced they have developed their brain making them much smarter and mentally stronger, which could be part of the reason why they climb at the same level as the adults? Yesterday in an IFSC meeting in Lausanne, I met Charlotte Durif and we discussed the subject. In 2005, Charlotte Durif (15) was the best female onsight climber ever and she was at that time even among the best male. We sent her some questions in French and our translator Jones Belhaj, big brother to Said, told us that he had never come across a 15 year old expressing her self in such a mature and advanced way - "He had to simplify some of her equilibristic words and sentences in order to make them understandable for everyone." Charlotte, five times Youth World Champion, won the Euro Championship being 15 years old and she is the first female to have onsighted an 8c. In 2011, she became the second women to do a 9a. In 2017, she got her PhD and got attributed the grade of Doctor in Chemistry and Physical Chemistry of Materials! Currently she is based in Salt Lake City working as an consultant to IFSC focusing on the Olympic movement.

Marine Thevenet, #7 in the Boulder World Cup in 2014, reports on Insta that she has done Fred Nicole's La danse des Balrogs original 8A+ in Branson, in just three sessions. In total she has now done 27 boulders 8A to 8B and her goal is to do 30 before turning in few months. (c) Clément Lechaptois "I prefer to spend my week-ends discovering boulders instead of climbing gym or during competitions. But it doesn't mean that I stopped climbing or training!"

Zhanan Zou, a.k.a. Bruce, has climbed Ty Landman’s Midnight Express 8B+ in Boulder Canyon, potentially becoming the first Chinese climber to climb the grade. Previously he had done two 8B's. Bruce started climbing at age 26 after moving from China to Boulder, Colorado in 2014. A week before the ascent of Midnight Express he successfully defended his PhD thesis in Mechanical Engineering. He wants to continue to pursue his research, and hopes to develop boulders in China, to open up a new level of climbing for Chinese climbers. Video finishing with screaming louder than Ondra and Sharma together :) (c) Cesar Valencia

Samuel Ometz has done Bain de Sang 9a in St Loup which Fred Nicole put up in 1993. "Soft Very interesting route! Felt desperate at first, 2 days to figure out the moves and another 2 to send. Hard to grade."