[Duma]

Irrespective of whether Max gets 4th or 5th he has a top 10 ranking which means he is 'Extra Quota' ie he is on top of the normal team quota.

What does this mean? GB will get 6 men's spots next year? Didn't think there was a limit on that so not sure i'm understanding correctly - eg Japan seem to always have tonnes of climbers, I figured it was just up to each federation as to how many athletes they send

Think this is right, Japan just have lots in the top ten!

[GraemeA]

Irrespective of whether Max gets 4th or 5th he has a top 10 ranking which means he is 'Extra Quota' ie he is on top of the normal team quota.

What does this mean? GB will get 6 men's spots next year? Didn't think there was a limit on that so not sure i'm understanding correctly - eg Japan seem to always have tonnes of climbers, I figured it was just up to each federation as to how many athletes they send

There is a fixed quota of 5 athletes for each team (per gender) plus the host nation gets another 5 athletes. And then there are the Extra Quota athletes, who are the top 10 from the previous years World Cup Ranking. JPN had 3 men in the Top 10 from 2021 so they get a quota of 8 for the men this year.

[galpinos]

Is the app correct or am I just too dumb to understand it.

How is Brooke 5= with 4T5Z when Mia Aoyagi and Jessie Pilz are in 11= with 5T5Z?

[GraemeA]

Is the app correct or am I just too dumb to understand it.

How is Brooke 5= with 4T5Z when Mia Aoyagi and Jessie Pilz are in 11= with 5T5Z?

2 groups.

Group A https://ifsc.results.info/#/event/1238/cr/6859

Group B https://ifsc.results.info/#/event/1238/cr/6859

It is all about being Top 10 in your own group. You cannot compare results from the different groups unless they have identical problems.

[galpinos]

Ah! That makes sense.

I guess the answer to the first question was "Too dumb...."!

[GraemeA]

Looks like Mejdi hasn't made semis, so 4th is almost in the bag

Not yet, I reckon Max needs 14th or better to overhaul Mejdi. This is because when there are 6 or more World Cups you can drop your worst score. NB Medji can slip further down the rankings and I estimate that if he drops another 4 or 5 places from his current joint 37th place, then Max would have the luxury of needing to finish 15th or better.

[GraemeA]

Ah! That makes sense.

I guess the answer to the first question was "Too dumb...."!

I didn't want to answer that question  But you have to remember that Tim Hatch wrote the App, so "Is the App correct?" is, to anyone that knows Tim, obviously a dumb question.

Tim's is quite literally a rocket scientist.

[edshakey]

Irrespective of whether Max gets 4th or 5th he has a top 10 ranking which means he is 'Extra Quota' ie he is on top of the normal team quota.

What does this mean? GB will get 6 men's spots next year? Didn't think there was a limit on that so not sure i'm understanding correctly - eg Japan seem to always have tonnes of climbers, I figured it was just up to each federation as to how many athletes they send

There is a fixed quota of 5 athletes for each team (per gender) plus the host nation gets another 5 athletes. And then there are the Extra Quota athletes, who are the top 10 from the previous years World Cup Ranking. JPN had 3 men in the Top 10 from 2021 so they get a quota of 8 for the men this year.

That makes perfect sense. I forgot Japan would have extras from last year, and I remember Korea stacking their team for Seoul but that now also adds up. Cheers!

[robertostallioni]

Sounds like its all gonna kick off after Alex W's insta-gripe.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CfHNs7-jRb3/

[edshakey]

Are you able to repeat the commented extension as well as the post? Not got insta and it won't let me see, and imagine others may face the same issue. Cheers

Not sure what the IFSC is aiming for with this. I assume in previous years they have been very very careful to stop people seeing the boulders in advance - why the lax attitude now? Equally, what was the goal when they showed pictures in isolation? It seems like an attempted solution to a question nobody ever even thought of.

Agree with Alex and Jernej, this is an absolute disgrace that this kind of thing can be introduced without athletes being aware. I wonder if the commission or whatever they're called, with athlete representation from the likes of Sean McColl and Shauna, knew about this.

[joel182]

Sounds like its all gonna kick off after Alex W's insta-gripe.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CfHNs7-jRb3/

Full text here:

"Leaving this comp and this boulder season incredibly unsatisfied. I’ll write more on my experience here soon, but I want to address something important first.

Bouldering is about strength and execution, but most importantly creativity. The ability to find your own solution to an unknown challenge is what makes the sport beautiful to me. Earlier this year the athletes were outraged that pictures of the boulders were shown in isolation, but in my opinion what has happened at this comp is far worse.

For the last week, the routesetters have been setting in plain view of the open gym, testing the boulders from all rounds while athletes and coaches watch on from the cafe. In isolation today, some athletes were openly trying replicas of their group’s qualification boulders before starting their round. The fact that some athletes have such detailed information on the boulders, while others are seeing them for the first time, is fundamentally unfair and absolutely outrageous at the top level of our sport.

Yesterday we arrived to watch @gb_climbing in the paraclimbing qualifiers to find the setting happening for today’s qualification round. I felt very uncomfortable being there and tried my best to avoid looking while cheering on the team, but I had some information going in to the round. Plenty of athletes and coaches seemingly camped out for the day, watched the testing openly and left knowing exactly how to climb the entire round. Plenty more avoided the venue completely to avoid getting any information at all. The people who watched have not broken any rules by being there, but this situation is obviously unfair. On reflection, I should have avoided the venue and only cheered the team on in the final, or pulled up a chair and joined the show.

1/2: I climbed terribly today. This post is not about my result or whining that I would have done better if this were different. I climbed badly and deserved my result. This post is about the future of the sport. I just can’t believe that the IFSC have let a situation like this occur. The solution was as simple as putting a curtain up in front of the competition wall while the setting was happening (as there was in Brixen), or just ask that athletes avoid the arena. These steps are taken to protect the integrity of the competition at local youth comps, but not at the top level.

2/2: In my opinion the only way to continue this competition fairly is for the setters to make significant changes to the boulders in the next rounds, or for beta videos to be released to all competitors in isolation. This is not a good outcome for anyone. In the future: put a tarp up, it’s not that hard.

Athletes: I’m not sure if it’ll make a difference, but I’ve sent this to the IFSC (sport@ifsc-climbing.org). If you feel similar I suggest you do the same.

TL;DR: some people watched the boulders being set, that ain’t fair"

[robertostallioni]

Beaten to it. 

[edshakey]

Cheers.

Seems like a huge oversight, they can't pretend they didn't know what was going on. Hopefully the right steps are taken in future to avoid a repetition of this!

[joel182]

Beaten to it. 

Thanks for bringing the original post to attention!

Climbers being able to see boulders before the competition seems like a very bad way for the sport to go, with a clear path towards an arms race where being able to observe, set replicas of and train on the competition boulders becomes the only way to achieve top performance.

[edshakey]

At the start, Matt Groom said "It's nice to see support for the federation" when a man in audience held up a sign that read "IFSC ROCKS". Sounded very dystopian. By 2025, I imagine all athletes and audience members will be publicly declaring their support for The Federation, bowing to the Eurosport logo every time they take to the mats.

Onto the actual comp:

M1 looked like an attempt by the routesetters to end the argument that crimpy boulders can create splits in the field - everyone walked up it, should have been 6/6 flashes really. Needed to be much longer with moves of that intensity.

Last move on M2 seemed amazingly hard with that foothold - wonder how the routesetters did the move even in isolation, different conditions maybe?

At least M3 and M4 gave it a split - interesting that only Colin could do the two of them, and everyone else managed one but not both. Very different skill sets! Deserving winner, and Yoshiyuki too for the season.

Interestingly the co-commentator (didn't catch his name) said that Kokoro is known to struggle with nerves. Ties in to and supports my hypothesis from a few months back!
 

I've not looked into the figures, but it strikes me that Fujii is the best qualifier/semi finalist out of anyone on the circuit currently, but doesn't always manage it in finals.

*rubs crystal ball for more useless knowledge*

[GraemeA]

Interestingly the co-commentator (didn't catch his name) said that Kokoro is known to struggle with nerves. Ties in to and supports my hypothesis from a few months back!
 

I've not looked into the figures, but it strikes me that Fujii is the best qualifier/semi finalist out of anyone on the circuit currently, but doesn't always manage it in finals.

Co-commentator is Danaan Markey, he used to work on the desk at the Works. I think he has the Blarney Stone in his hotel room and kisses it regularly 

Tomoa (probably considered the most successful male boulder) has 5 golds in WC and 2 in WCH
Kokoro (reckoned to be a bag of nerves in finals) has 5 golds in WC and 1 in WCH

[Danny]

Men's finals was very much a game of 2 halves. By the end of M2 I was feeling for the setters, with effectively no split. I wonder whether the final blocked crimp on M2 was a last minute tweak that overcooked it? M3 and 4 saved the day a bit, but overall it wasn't as good as Brixen.

Generally the comps have been really good this year, so my standard of expectation is probably a bit higher.

Even if I could set, I probably wouldn't take all the tea in China to do these kind of events. Hats off to all those that do it so well.   

[edshakey]

Tomoa (probably considered the most successful male boulder) has 5 golds in WC and 2 in WCH
Kokoro (reckoned to be a bag of nerves in finals) has 5 golds in WC and 1 in WCH

Tbh I didn't realise it was so close. However I'd argue my point can still stand, since wins aren't everything:

Kokoro has made 29 WC/WCh finals:
7+5+6=18 fourth, fifth, sixth
3 bronze
2 silver
6 gold

Tomoa has made 27 WC/WCh finals:
0+1+1=2 fourth, fifth, sixth
3 bronze
15 silver
7 gold

(All boulder only)

So they have made a similar number of finals in their careers. However Tomoa wins a medal 93% of the time, compared to Kokoro with 38%. Maybe there's something to be said about Tomoa winning so many silvers, but he's certainly able to pull out a medal winning performance when he needs to - one of the most consistent around when it comes to finals.

(BTW that tip about ifsc.results.info a while back has been incredibly useful, makes this trawling very easy!)

[finbarrr]

can someone post a link to the video of the last event on the olympic channel? surely it's 24 hours later now.
i found the results..... but still can't find a video, this is maddening

[robertostallioni]

seached for innsbruck bouldering 2022 and this was there..
https://olympics.com/en/video/sport-climbing-women-s-boulder-final-world-cup-innsbruck

Edit- this is the womens final, from tonight :

[finbarrr]

thanks, i just found that link and it "doesn't work in my location".
found the link to the semi's before, but it started playing Meiringen semi's instead, watched for an hour until i noticed.

[dave k]

I found Olympic channel to take more than 24 hours to get it.

I have recently gone for a VPN and it was super simple and very effective. Live coverage so no risk of spoilers while trying to find the link on Olympic channel!

[Bradders]

The women's comp seems like it's in an interesting place, especially for next year. Natalia Grossman has seemed like Janja mkII for most of the season, in cruise control, so it was good to see Hannah Meul pushing her close in Innsbruck. Hopefully she can keep that up.

And then with Janja back (not sure if she's doing any more lead comps this year), it could make for an interesting three way race! A slight shame that all of the others seem so far behind though, and Janja was still in a different league in the lead final albeit that was down to one stopper move that everyone else fell off.

[PipeSmoke]

Is it actually a 3 horse race though? Janja seemed comfortably ahead for the most part.

Also I’m surprised there isn’t more uproar about the boulders being observed by some people, surely that’s a big knock to the credibility of the round?

[jwi]

I liked watching Janja actually challenged by a route. Seeing her hesitating, trying to find safer ways of doing the moves etc. I do not think I have seen that before on indoor routes