Ema Seliskar has done her fourth 8b+ the last six months, Agresija II in Kotecnik. In the Age & Gender bonus ranking the 14 year old Slovenian is #13. Last year she was between #9 and 12 in all four European Cups she entered. (c) Lucija Tarkuš "Last year I was really nervous on comps, so I couldn't show my best and because of that I decided that I was not ready to compete in the Worlds yet. I am really looking forward and training hard to participate in the Youth Worlds this year in Arco. Nowdays I train 5 times in a week for 3-4 hours a day."

Tokyo 2020 has already had a great impact on many of the federations when it comes to funding. Talking to coaches and athletes, many say their financial support for training camps, competition travels and even monthly salary have created much better opportunities. Most probably, this will mean that we will see bigger starting fields and in fact a higher level which the route setters have to adjust to. At the same time, the pressure on the route setters will increase dramatically and it will also be very hard for them to stay independent towards the federations somewhat paying their salary. What they are all aiming for is to set the climbs in Tokyo 2020. Possibly this could be that there will be a slight adjustment towards the preferable style for the often shorter and more dynamic Japanese climbers? Further more, all route setters knows quite well which type of routes and boulders each top climber likes so it will be a very delicate issue to set the only three final boulders in Tokyo. Of course this could also relate to the holds the route setters bring to the scene which some nations will know better than others. Do not forget also that as climbing is getting bigger it will be possible to bet money who will win etc. In the end it just might be that IFSC must set up some rules in order to create as much fairness as possible. Here are some critical info that just might be shared some months before every comp, beside that route setters have to sign documents with all kind of rules. 1. Specify which holds that will be used. 2. Specify the walls and their angels. 3. Specify which types of style

8a first presented climbing ethics in 2003. We used a traffic light visualization in order to say that there is no absolute strict rules. However, when it comes to "world records" we think you should not move towards getting a "yellow card". Do you agree with the presented ethics? "In sport climbing, compared to most other sports, there are few written rules or use of referees. Instead, the climbing community creates and circulates their own Practice & Ethics. Beginners are sometimes struggling to understand what is "normal" behavior and what's allowed and what's not. Over time, the general procedure has been modified and in different subcultures different ethics apply."

1. Yoshiyuki Ogata - Akiyo Noguchi 2. Jongwon Chon - Futaba Ito 3. Tomoa Narasaki - Miho Nonaka Adam Ondra was supposed to participate but he had to cancel. Recently, Kokoro Fujii and Akiyo Noguchi become Lead National Champions. Akiyo was #2 in Bouldering and #3 in Speed so she seems to be well prepared for getting that Olympic ticket. Her #1 competitor is Miho Nonaka who won Bouldering, #3 in Speed and #7 in Lead. Kokoro was #2 in Speed and #6 in Bouldering and should be the first contender after Tomoa Narasaki to qualify to Tokyo 2020. Tomoa was #2 in Bouldering and #2 in Lead and #4 in Speed. There is a country quota of two male and female but as Japan is the host, only one male and female will qualify by results. The second person will be selected. Ogata tells us that the Japanese World Cup team has been decided but it has not been public yet.

Giuliano Cameroni has done his first two 8C+ just the last month, Poison the Well in Brione and REM in Cresciano. (c) Jimmy Webb "REM and Poison the Well have first been tried by Dave Graham more than 10 years ago. I have never seen chalk on the REM holds, so I guess it hasn’t been tried in the last 5 years. I started trying REM in January and it took me eight sessions to complete it. The key was the mental aspect: during the last four sessions I kept falling off the last hard move without any improvement. After that I decided to take a two weeks break from the boulder. Meanwhile, I was able to climb Poison the Well, which gave me a lot of confidence and motivation to complete REM as well. The night of the send I was positive and didn’t feel any pressure, which allowed me to execute perfectly. Definitely felt like I was climbing in a dream! Also, this whole boulder is hands down my favorite piece of rock and the one I learned the most from." Giuliano arrived to the boulder 23.30 and then did some easy warming up before he sent it 01.00 during the night. Video is coming up in April on Mellow. "I warm up at the boulder, but just the minimum needed by hanging on the perfect Dreamtime holds and grabbing the crimp at 70%. It’s all about that right hand razor, so you really want your skin to be perfect and your fingers to be warm and well rested. You need really cold conditions to hold on the right hand razor. During the day it was too warm, but at 1 AM it was dry and perfect! On REM I liked to warm up super slow and be sure I was at 100 when I gave the good try. On these kind of boulders where it all comes down to the skin, I prefer not doing too many moves in order to preserve the skin, so I mostly hang on comfortable holds or grab small crimps at 50-70%. Grade-wise, a new beta has been found, so the difficulty still needs to be confirmed. Nonetheless it’s still one of the best and hardest lines in Ticino."

IFSC has signed a four year contract with Dentsu Inc, the world's largest advertising agency, and Synca Creations, a TV production and distribution company. (c) Eddie Fowke "The agreement grants Dentsu and Synca rights to the procurement and negotiation of incoming IFSC marketing and media deals (media rights for Asia Pacific (excluding China), Latin America and the Caribbean) for IFSC events in the 2019-2023 climbing seasons."

Margo Hayes and Jesse Grupper won the USA Lead Nationals ahead of Ashima Shiraishi and Zander Waller. Most interesting from the Speed event was Brooke Raboutou doing 9.32, way ahead of Margo at 11.90 and Ashima at 12.67. Only a couple non-Speed specialists have gone sub 9 seconds. Complete results Among the male, Sean Bailay who won in Bouldering should be the first USA contender to get a ticket to Tokyo but he needs to cut more than a second from his 8.66 in Speed. The best non-Speed specialist go sub 7 seconds.