In general, the 20 top ranked Combined female did really well. Nine made it to the semi: Ondra, Ghisolfi, Megos, T Narasaki, M Narasaki, Skofic, Harada, Rubtsov, Bosi. #27 Kokoro Fujii, # Jan Hojer 29, #29 Yanick Flohe, #31 Yoshiyuki Ogata, #33 Jongwon Chon,#35 Jernej Kruder, #37 Sean McColl, #55 Mickael Mawem, #73 Rei Sugimoto, #80 Manuel Cornu, #105 Bassa Mawem. The biggest set back was Ogata at #31 and Sugimoto at #73.

The female have started their two first qualification routes and here you have the updated results and the live streaming. You can also down load the App, "IFSC Lead" and follow the results and via "Innsbruck" stay updated.. Full schedule etc is available on IFSC. Tomorrow the 126 male will do the Lead qualification and it is about to make it among Top-26 to make it to the semifinal. Both male and female compete in two groups doing two different routes so in practice, you need to be Top-13 in each group to make it to the semi. On Saturday, the female will do the semi at 13.00 and the final at 19.00 and on Sunday it is the male with the same schedule.

The World Championship in Innsbruck got an excellent start with four almost perfect routes for the female. All the big names on top of the list including Janja Garnbret who was the only one to get two Tops. In fact, all Top-10 mentioned by 8a made it through to the Top-26 semifinal. Complete results (c) Erich Spiess More pics from Innsbruck2018. In general, Austria was the best country with three girls Top-8 and a total of four to the semi. Japan did only participate with three female and they were all Top-12. Also Slovenia did get three women to the semifinal and seven in Top-34.

In general, the 20 top ranked Combined female did really well. 13 made it to the semi: Garnbret, Pilz, Kim, Noguchi, Sa, Shiraishi, Kotake, Nonaka, Klingler, Hily, Lettner, Ekatarina Kipriianova and Hayes. The results for #27 Vita Lukan, #31 Brooke Raboutou, #39 Stasa Geio, #40 Cliare Buhrfeind, #50 Laura Stöckler, #51 Alex Puccio and #75 Anna Tsyganova. Complete results

Tristan Chen skips 9a and does his first 9a+, Jaws II in Rumney. His first and only 8c+ he did in 2015. (c) Kevin Donovan "I put 22 days in over three years. Spent the whole summer in 2016 working the crux move on Jaws, but didn't stick the move. Was kinda close to the move last year, but still didn't do it. I finally did it this spring, but dry fired right after and couldn't send. Rumney is my home crag and Jaws has been the hardest thing for over 1000 miles so I've always wanted to do it. Flew into Boston from Denver for the weekend just to do this climb, and did it first day back on about 3 hours of sleep, and two donuts for breakfast. The difference was that I was just way stronger than before, I trained non stop through the spring, and climbed much more outside, than I have in the past, through the summer. I trained lock offs on and off for the last couple years. This spring I actually only campused for about 2 months, since my foot was injured. That and quite a bit of weight lifting."

Who will win the Lead World Championship, including speculative odds. 1. Janja Garnbret 1.3 - Adam Ondra 3 2. Jessica Pilz 4 - Jakob Schubert 3.5 3. Anak Verhoeven 5 - Stefano Ghisolfi 6 4. Jain Kim 10 - Romain Desgranges 8 5. Akiyo Noguchi 12 - Domen Skofic 10 6. Miho Nonaka 20 - Alex Megos 12 Contenders: Helene Janicot, Manon Hily, Ashima Shiraishi, Mei Kotake - 30 Shuta Tanaka, Sascha Lehmann, Max Rudigier and Tomoa Narasaki - 30

Samuel Ometz, who has done 16 boulders 8B+ and 8C, has done his first 9a, Cabane au Canada in Rawyl. (c) Rainer Eder "Summergoal achieved! Probably not the hardest for the grade, but a good challenge if you come from bouldering and have to build the endurance. I had some Finger injuries the past two years that didn't allow me to climb at 100%, which was getting frustrating over time. So this spring I decided to seriously try sport climbing as it's less intense on the fingers and there is a lot of climbing around my home that I never even tried. Now there are so many projects I want to do! Plan for this autumn is to try some shorter routes to transition better to the bouldering winter season. The main two lines I want to try are Coup de grace and an unclimbed project close to my home.

alizee dufraisse has done her third 8B the last month in Rocklands, Fragile Steps which she gives a personal 8A+ grade as it just took her three sessions. In the 8a ranking game, the French is #5. "Now Switzerland and USA more bouldering before Spain and La Rambla. I m super sycked to go back this winter!! Let's see. I'll focus on that all winter. Start some route climbing in America before, mixing with bouldering and then Spain."

IFSC reports that 173 athletes have registered to compete in all three disciplines. This means that most of the guys doing Bouldering and Lead will also compete in Speed. On the other hand, very few of the best Speed climbers will try the other two disciplines. "The six top-scoring men and women will qualify for the Combined finals on the last day, the first of its kind at the IFSC World Championships."

Paige Claasen, reports on Insta that she has done the second ascent of Jonathan Siegrist Algorithm 9a in the Fins. In total, it took her eight days to send the 40 m almost vertical wall. Paige, who was #14 in the Bouldering World Championship in 2007, has previously done both 8c+ as well as 8B. Here is a great Beth Rodden interview from last year where she talks about her life in Colorado and South Africa. "I started Southern Africa Education Fund because I firmly believe that education is the only path out of poverty."