Based on the IFSC 2020 Olympic qualification system one might say that there is very little use for the athletes to actually focus on Speed, beside technical training, until the end of 2019. 1. Six spots have been allocated to the Combined World Championship in 2019, i.e. it is the qualification that will decide. Based on the multiplication format, good results in all three discipline are poor in comparison to an uneven result: 1 * 10 * 50 = 500 wins over 8 * 8 * 8 = 512 2. Focusing on Speed 2019, meaning training hard and travelling, in order to get some few points in Speed, among the specialists, means you are likely to loose more points in Lead or Boulder: #1 = 100 points and #4 = 55 points/#25 = 5 points. The Top-20 in the overall World Cup 2019 will finish the season with an Qualifying event and here Speed will have more impact as no Speed specialist will probably qualify. However, it is not until the Top-6 final in Tokyo when the Speed ability will have the greatest impact, due to the multiplication format. It should also be mentioned that if you are from countries that have more than two guys that could qualify like: Japan, USA, Austria, France, Italy, Slovenia or Germany, the first qualification WCH in 2019 is most important. After that comp, most likely Japan and one more country have filled their quota.

Some ten years ago, when we often had Grigri accidents, I personally taught many of the most famous climbers how to clip in the Grigri in the harness. Instead of just clipping it in the belay loop they clipped it in sideways by attaching the screw carabiner where you are supposed to tie in. If the screw carabiner is sideways it is much harder for it to lock. Fortunately the bad Grigri accidents have almost stopped which probably relates to this sideways use. However, during the last few weeks I have seen videos of famous athletes that actually feed out rope without holding into the rope. Climbing is a growing sport and safety is most important. I think it would be nice if the athletes and the film producers could take responsibility to not show Grigri misuse in videos which million of climbers end up watching and learn from.

The Youth World Championship was planned to be organized in Canada 7-19/8 but this event was cancelled one month ago. Moscow has now applied for it using the same date. The official decision will be taken 17/3.

Chris Sharma reports on his Instagram that Joe Kinder has done the FA of Life of Villains 9a+ in Hurricane. Two months ago, Joe reported on his Instagram, "ONE HANG!! (after 4 years of working this beast)." (c) Joe Segreti Joe Kinder has been very active on the scene for 15 years always sharing his passion and joy for everything in climbing, including setting up hard routes and creating great videos. Here an interview from 2013 we did with the "always psyched". "It's been a wild experience man to say the absolute least. I am very happy as its been an emotional moment for me. The send yesterday was just a glimpse of the whole story and experience. The grade, title of FA, and all the other terms we use to validate an accomplishment have very little weight when I think about the experience. This is a story I will take with me forever and I am so proud."

Regis Portalez has done a mathimaticl study of Adam Ondra's progress through grades from 8a to 9c. "The equation is 3.3678ln(x). That means He will cross the 9c+, 6 922 days after his first 8a (08/20/2002). Which makes 08/02/2021.

Nico Favresse, one of the leading multi discipline climbers for many years, reports on Facebook that he has flashed China Crisis. The Oliana route is one of the most repeated and confirmed 8b+'s in the world. The Belgian being 38 years old, say it is like 8a+ old school grading.

Beto Rocasolano publishes on his Instagram account his FA to Hipoxia 8C in Navalosa, Spain. ©Sara Richart "Yesterday could send Hipoxia 8C in Navalosa, the inverse of Parálisis 8C, but IMO is more obvious cause goes in an ascending traverse, but I have to come back and send the descending one."

09:00-12:30 Semi-Finals 13:30-17:00 Finals

Jon Cardwell comes with the great news on his Instagram that he has done La Rambla 9a+ in Siurana. This year it took ten tries but the process started last year. Previously he has done some 10 - 15 routes graded 9a, the first one in 2008. (c) Greg Mionske Congrats! So what made the send in the end? Thank you! Not really sure exactly what made things work, except that I was just really excited to climb again in Spain after suffering from a bad finger injury last July. I worked patiently all late summer and into the fall/winter to rehab my finger and strength appropriately without risking re-injury. When I arrived in Spain, I felt refreshed and more motivated than ever to just enjoy the climbing with good friends. Also, I worked the route for a couple weeks last year when Matty and Margo climbed it, so I began this trip knowing all the beta quite well. This was the ascent #22 in total of Ramon Julian Puigblanque's classical route from 2003 which makes it the most popular 9a+ in the world. In 1994, Alex Huber made it to a first anchor calling it 8c+ but with the today grade standards, his version is considered 9a.