Janja quoted as missing the rest of the boulder WCs:“I’ve decided to skip the [rest of the] Boulder season this year. The Olympics last year were a pretty hard take on physical and mental preparation, so I feel that I need a little time off from comps and this year is the perfect year to do that."
Seems pretty clear the problems in women's semis and finals were too hard for most of the field, shame but not sure how they split Janja and Natalia otherwise? I guess if it was set at a level more doable for the rest, those two would just flash everything...At least if Janja misses the rest of the season that won't be a concern!Edit: I've not watched it (paywall), just going on the lack of tops for the rest of the field.
I remember the women's field having this problem before, but with more athletes, back in around 2014. You had Anna Stohr, Jule Wurn, Shauna, Akiyo, and (I think) Melissa Le Neve, operating at a totally different level than the rest, so it was those 5 plus a bonus person in finals each week, and qualis/semis was them all absolutely crushing and then maybe a top for the others. See also the BBCs when Shauna was at peak, it wasn't even a competition, just Shauna with 4 easy flashes and then the rest struggling for anything. But I'm not sure what you can really do, I thought this comp had a good balance and still had tension and was fun to watch.Will be a shame for the show if Janja skips, but exciting to see whatever it is that she is motivated for instead! Hopefully she can pull out a winter send of Dura Dura...
Quote from: jakk on April 10, 2022, 08:01:27 pmI remember the women's field having this problem before, but with more athletes, back in around 2014. You had Anna Stohr, Jule Wurn, Shauna, Akiyo, and (I think) Melissa Le Neve, operating at a totally different level than the rest, so it was those 5 plus a bonus person in finals each week, and qualis/semis was them all absolutely crushing and then maybe a top for the others. See also the BBCs when Shauna was at peak, it wasn't even a competition, just Shauna with 4 easy flashes and then the rest struggling for anything. But I'm not sure what you can really do, I thought this comp had a good balance and still had tension and was fun to watch.Will be a shame for the show if Janja skips, but exciting to see whatever it is that she is motivated for instead! Hopefully she can pull out a winter send of Dura Dura...Think those are easier situations though: with one climber way out you set at the level of the rest - maybe not so much fun for Janja (or whoever) but still a good show as the other 5 in finals get to fight on problems at the appropriate level.Similarly if you have 3 or more at a higher level - set for them, a bit of a shame for the others in the final, but there'll be enough tops from the best few to be fun watching.In this case in order to split the top 2, the problems have to be so hard that most of the field don't get to do much climbing (2 tops out if a possible 16 from the first 4 climbers, and all on the same problem). Can't see an easy way round it, as you need to split the top two.
Floaty performance from Fujii, absolutely cruising.
I remember the women's field having this problem before, but with more athletes, back in around 2014. You had Anna Stohr, Jule Wurn, Shauna, Akiyo, and (I think) Melissa Le Neve, operating at a totally different level than the rest, so it was those 5 plus a bonus person in finals each week, and qualis/semis was them all absolutely crushing and then maybe a top for the others.
Quote from: jakk on April 10, 2022, 08:01:27 pmI remember the women's field having this problem before, but with more athletes, back in around 2014. You had Anna Stohr, Jule Wurn, Shauna, Akiyo, and (I think) Melissa Le Neve, operating at a totally different level than the rest, so it was those 5 plus a bonus person in finals each week, and qualis/semis was them all absolutely crushing and then maybe a top for the others. On the flipside, this was (arguably) one of the most interesting season(s) in the women's comps as it was always a battle between these 5 and it was always pretty open as to who would win, including the 6th competitor which tended to a wider pool of about 6 more.I've not watched the latest comp, but it seems there was yet another terrible IFSC rule-change which meant competitors could view pictures of the problems in advance of the observation?!Doesn't seem to have been much appreciated by the climbers - IFSC again putting their own ideas ahead of what competitors/regular fans want?
I think the idea of pre viewing was to make the problems more doable and this more appealing to television audience.
Really? Surely a couple of tarps would suffice.
