UKC

La Sportiva's Legend's Only comp is this Saturday (Surely the most under-hyped event of the year)

Great shame but Tomoa Narasaki is out with an injury leaving:

Jongwon Chon
Rustam Gelmanov
Kokoro Fujii
Alexander Megos
Jimmy Webb

Favourites to win?

I'd go for Megos. Not as experienced as the others on the IFSC circuit but as this is a worked format and he's in the best shape I think his chances must be pretty high.


It's on Sat 7pm I think ? http://www.klattercentret.se/akalla/la-sportiva-legends-2016/

In reply to stp:

I'd say megos is odds on to win, due to the format like you say, on a good day I don't think anyone can best him right now

In reply to stp:
No womens comp?

Third vote for Megos BTW.

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:


They alternate years. Last year it was women only, this year men.

In reply to stp:

Gelmanov or Webb I'd say.

In reply to stp:

Ah OK that's a good idea.

Looking forward to Saturday!

In reply to bouldery bits:

Webb is still recovering from Finger injury... And he might have a mental struggle as well, considering he blew out his Finger last time around.


So Gelmanov or Megos would be my picks. Megos is strong, but not really a comp climber, where as Gelmanov is just that.

In reply to stp:
This guy is a good Youtuber who works at the gym. Seems like he's making a series about the comp, could be interesting. Usually he starts with a music montage:

youtube.com/watch?v=lDyWTjtvpY4&

In reply to TheFasting:

Really fun YouTube channel.
Their gym also seems to be Megos' home gym these days. Which is the same gym for LS LO.

In reply to stp:

Megos will likely do better in this format as he will have had chance to work the problem. Rustam is always a strong bet as he is so seasoned. Webb is so strong though. Even with a finger injury he might surprise us.

In other words, I'm psyched to watch it!

In reply to FinlayThomson:
Yeah, he posts every day, and his crew seems to be regularly bouldering 7c to 8b, so I haven't regretted subscribing. Sometimes I can just sit and click from video to video for a long time. Sometimes you get surprise appearances from Megos too, there are also some videos of them going outside to boulder too I think.

In reply to TheFasting:

Cool. Thanks.

There's also a very short (3m) preview by OnBouldering: http://onbouldering.com/preview-la-sportiva-legends-only-2016/

Presumably those who watched the whole 3 hours will be in a pretty good position to predict the results.

In reply to TheFasting:

Good link thanks, very enjoyable.

Not sure who the punter in the green down jacket was but clearly a wannabe!

In reply to stp:

There's yet another video, this time an interview with Liam Lonsdale who is there and watched the first day. He'll be commenting the event...

youtube.com/watch?v=QfyvM0ptKlY&

In reply to TheFasting:

Part 2 is out now with great multi point dyno by Alex at 3.30...
youtube.com/watch?v=3CAMzlIeKWc&

In reply to stp:

What Mischa said.

In a flash comp Fujii and Chon could well have ran away with it. If Tomoa was fit i reckon he would have won it regardless of the format.

In reply to stp:

Two more video shorts, both interesting. Sound's like the result is totally unpredictable from the work session according to Jerry. (I can't think of a comp with more build up videos than this. Kranj lead WC is also on this weekend and I've not seen anything about that.)

http://onbouldering.com/talking-with-the-protagonists-la-sportiva-legends-o...

In reply to stp:

Megos under pressure...

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

Indeed. Third place then! Good comp though.

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

Kranj semi final is on now too...

youtube.com/watch?v=Pc3gO8E-sHQ&

In reply to stp:

Yeah some of those moves were just insane! Even on TV they looked tough.

Some really nice sequences in it, I thought.

In reply to Greasy Prusiks:

Definitely. I thought Megos impressed nonetheless. He just walked up that last problem.

In reply to stp:

Yeah they were all really impressive.

Megos was very impressive. He showed some real grit especially on his weakest problem.

Agreed he absolutely crushed the last problem! I spent ages looking at the problems trying to figure out some beta for them and I couldn't even get that....

Here's an upside-down volume, a sloper (8ft off to the left) and one knife edge crimp, off you go!

In reply to stp:

Bit off topic and I'm sure this has been raised before, but in any other sport as far as I know legends refers to those whose competitive careers are effectively over. Here, legends seems to refer to those who are competing at the very highest level. Shame really, I'm sure there is an appetite to see Ben and Jerry and the rest in competition.

In reply to stp:

Felt a bit sorry for Gelmanov, a couple of those moves were definitely on the lanky side. Chon was rather impressive, cocky even, in the mid-session interview with LL just before he pulled on one problem. Turns out it was just confidence!

In reply to Mark Collins:

In this context it's simply the name of the competition. That is it's a proper noun not a regular noun. As such I think 'Legends Only' gives a good indication of what the comp is about. It's an invite only comp for very high calibre climbers who have really made their mark in climbing.

In reply to Fraser:

Agree regarding Gelmanov. Even the crimp problem was a big stretch. I thought Chon was really struggling with the language so not sure how much to take from what he said.

In reply to stp:

They're not allowed to use their hands...?

In reply to stp:


Yes, on reflection you're probably right. Having said that, he did make those final problems look pretty straight forward. It's a shame the comp didn't last longer than it did. I wonder how different the results would look if it had it been an onsight format.

In reply to stp:


Not for me - having watched a couple years ago I'd rather watch paint dry