Ashima Shiraishi has recovered well from her 14 meter ground fall which occurred last month and is currently in Grampians in Australia, where she has just done Sleepy Rave, which was set up by Dai Koyamada as an 8C. It is a link up of an 8A (+), a 7C and a 8A and it makes the final 3/4 of The Wheel of Life 8C (+). Later she did Mana 8B which was pictured by Parker Alec Kross from Crossroad studios. Since the FA in 2004, several personal downgrades have been added, which included also 8B in 2016. The Boulder is an endurance challenge - it is horizontal climbing for like ten meters and therefore also an 8c+ route grade has been suggested for it. Based on Ashimas's combined Route and Boulder tick list, the 15-year-old can be considered the most impressive female climber in the world since she was 13 years old.

In the IFSC application for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic, it has been suggested that 20 male and 20 female will compete for one set of medals based on their combined result in Lead, Boulder and Speed. IFSC have said they will explain how the criteria will be done in 2017 and here are some speculations. (c) Luka Fonda Basically, the selection must be made in a similar format as how the format will be carried out in Tokyo, meaning that the Olympic qualifications must be done over few days in all three disciplines. Consequently, it will be almost impossible to use the World Cup results as basis for the selection, as such events will be super hard to organize. This means that most probably, the Olympic qualifications will be carried out during the World Championships and also Continental Championships as IFSC and IOC want athletes from around the globe. 2019 Top-5 in the European Championship Top-2 in the American Championship Top-3 in the Asian Championship Top-1 in the African Championship Top-1 in the Pacific Championship 2020 Top-8 in the World Championship + 9th etc once Continental qualified also qualifies in the Worlds. One dilemma with such criteria is of course that most probably, no speed climber will qualify. So IFSC might decide that all the three world champions will also qualify. If so, it will be a rather odd Speed event in the Olympics as there will be one guy about 50% faster than the rest of the group. Imagine that the only climber who continuously does all three disciplines, Sean McColl, is almost among the very last in Speed World Cups. Another delicate matter IFSC has to deal with is that during the Olympics there will probably be no semifinal as there are only 20 participants. At the same time, during the qualifications you need to have a semifinal as there will probably be at least 100 athletes competing in the World Championships. And as a final twist, the 2020 World Championship might be a good opportunity to focus only on Bouldering as one could assume that Bouldering experts going for the Olympics endurance format will not perform at their top level. In practice, most likely, the Olympic participants will be Lead climbers. There are many considerations to be taken into account, not mentioning that all IFSC decisions will have to be copied into the Youth and National Championships. Basically, the climbing competition sport as we know it will be changed for ever. Jorg Verhoeven, who previously and for many years was the athlete IFSC representative, comments on Facebook, "Fingers crossed we won't make a wrong turn from here on and let's hope the event will be representing the sport like it is, without changing it to be 'fit' for the Olympics... A little bit of change is not necessarily a bad thing, but a badly tested new format no climber agrees on is what I'm afraid of. Less worries about doping. Yet..."

The interview is from April and finishes with Adam saying that he does not know if he will participate or boycott it.

Sean Bailey, who has been 12 - 4 - 16 in the first three 2016 Lead World Cups, reports on Instagram that he has repeated Chris Sharma's classic, Biographie 9a+ in Céüse.

Megan Mascarenas, who won the last Boulder World Cup and has never done worse than #4 during her last five events, has done her second 8B of the last two weeks, Te Cuelgas Guey in Elevenmile Canyon. "One of the coolest things i have ever seen! all the moves are unique and all together they are so hard! Im glad for the day flash because there are too many moves to fall off! So psyched."

IFSC President Marco Scolaris was present at the IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro. 'We are so happy that Sport Climbing will be participating in the Games of Tokyo. We have reached the final hold of our unbelievable climb, but another climb awaits us. Our team is committed to preparing Sport Climbing for the Olympic Games, and over the next four years we will continue to work with the IOC to do so.' In total 20 male and 20 female will compete for the combined gold. How these athletes will be selected will be decided in 2017. It should be noted that several top athletes like Chris Sharma and Adam Ondra have been very critical towards the suggested combined format.

Sean Bailey, from Seattle, Washington redpointed Biographie 9a+/15a at Ceuse, France according to Instagram and Facebook.

Climb Kalymnos reports that two new shady sectors have been opened near Arginonta with a total of some 40 routes. "Both new sectors were developed as part of the 2015/16 EU-funded maintenance and equipping project. The new cliffs fill a need on Kalymnos for more mid-grade climbs and more shade. With the vast majority of grades between 5c to 7a and shade from 10:00-16:00 at Black Buddha or from noon until the end of the day at Arginonta Valley, both new sectors are expected to become increasingly popular."

Giorgio Bendazzoli, who has done one 9a previously, has added his first Boulders after an intensive and rainy week in Magic Wood. In total, the 17-year-old did ten Boulders graded 8A to 8B including an 8A flash and Riverbed 8B. - The weather was a bit rainy but with good temperatures, we managed to climb always except one day..I am happy to have realised many boulders also in few tries even if Magic Wood was my first "real" time on rock...my best result was definitely river bad which came at the end of the day in very few tries...I'm looking forward to go back to magic as soon as possible! In the last European Youth Cup, the Italian was #3 and in last two years he has actually won one event. In the Combined 8a ranking game, Giorgio is #6 among the juniors.