UKC

Sport is rarely about everything going perfectly and you delivering your very best in ideal conditions, it's generally a battle of who can react best to what is going on around them. Toulouse would certainly be an example of that.

Good to watch. Great commentary as always Charlie.

Kinda feel like Lucka should've had the Olympic ticket with two 3rd's and a 6th vs two 7th's and a 1st. Especially with the lead being so close, it just came down to 1 hold between 1st and 4th. Oh well...

Wasn't it suposed to be 7 (Hachioji) + 6 (Toulouse) = 13 ???

I had read somewhere that the 1+1 Tripartite Commission Invitation Places had been realocated to Hachioji, making it 8 (Hachioji) + 6 (Toulouse) = 14

Can you confirm if this is the case?

Great article, great commentary Charlie. You must be ready for a well-earned break. I hope you'll be covering the Olympics and won't get bumped by a "professional" sports commentator like the one from ESPN we had for the US top comps this year, who seemed to have prepared by watching Vertical Limit and Cliffhanger. 

I agree that the battle between Krampl and Rakovec was the main drama of the finals. My heart ached for Manuel Cornu, who had a disastrous day in qualification, capped by a super low slip off the lead route. It was bittersweet to see local hero Sean Bailey climb well but end up a whisker short of Olympic qualification. Hopefully he'll win the Continental Championships.

Overall, I thought the setters did an excellent job of creating interesting movement and separating the field. They have a tough job, and their work has a huge impact on the overall quality of the event. Bring on 2020!

Hiya.

8 were taken from the World Champs as it was the 7 allocated spots plus the host nation allocation taken up in Japan (Akiyo and Miho in the women/ Tomoa and Kai in the men).

The Tripartite allocation decision process takes place next year. Nat popped a link to the Tripartite in a previous article but here is the link for ease: 
https://extranet.worldarchery.org/documents/index.php/documents/?doc=4724

For what its worth on 8a.nu Jens is running odds on who is awarded the Tripartite spot (they have to have made the top 20 in the World Champs so we know a long list of who could be awarded this spot at least.

Hope this helps,

Cheers.

The 14th places come from Japan's unused Host Place, which was reallocated to the next highest ranked climbers in Hachioji. The Tripartite place will be reallocated at the end of the selection pathway (after all the continental championships) to the next highest non-qualified, eligible climbers from Hachioji. 

Yeah, thanks. ‘Twas but a brain freeze on my part that I forgot that was what was happening. I thought I saw a comment on 8a.nu about the Tripartite places having been allocated but I may be mistaken or it may be just wrong.

My understanding is that the Tripartite place can only go to someone from a list of certain countries (categorised as poor or under developed countries) AND someone who was in Hachioji and got a Combined Ranking (so not just Top 20). And there is no one that fulfills both conditions. So the place hoes back to Hachioji.

Jens knows nowt He claimed Stefano lost ot because of time which is demonstrably incorrect. He also makes incorrectstatements all of the time.

This. I didn't explain the fact that no climbers from Hachioji are technically eligible for the Tripartite place, so it just goes to the next-ranked from that comp. I actually thought they had to be in the top 20 too. Thanks Graeme!

Ah, so we do now have 15+15 qualified...

Who were the two new names that places from Hachioji (once you allow for two per country)?

No the Tripartite isn't definite yet, as it's not decided until the end of all the continentals and there are so many scenarios that could play out before then, looking at the Hachioji results. So we currently still stand at 14 'confirmed' - once the latest 6 receive NOC confirmation etc. 

Anouck could qualify at Euro Champs, or Fanny could qualify and block her from taking the Tripartite place due to the country quota. If neither of them qualify there, then Anouck will take the Tripartite place...but if Anouck qualifies in the Euros, Chaehyun Seo might have a chance, if she didn't already get through in the Asian Champs...but there's also Di Niu fighting for that spot just behind her, and so on...

Yannick Flohé has now been pushed out of contention by Jan taking the second German spot, and Nathaniel Coleman qualified in Toulouse. Rudolph Ruana is next in line, but he could win the PanAm Champs, or Sean Bailey might and then block Rudolph by taking the second US place...then it would fall to Michael Piccolruaz. But Stefano Ghisolfi could win Euro Champs, or indeed Michael...etc...then Jernej Kruder is possibly in contention...etc...

Right, bedtime...

This: "I could carry on writing about every nuance of this situation, but you only get so many hours on this planet and I've spent enough of them dwelling on the IFSC's Olympic Selection process so I'll leave it there."

Ah right, it’s complicated. It’s hilarious from a bystanders point of view, must be a nightmare for the people this stuff is actually important to!  

Och, that’s rubbish. Charlie loves this sort of stuff. I heard he wants Gary Kasparov summarising with him in the commentary box at the Olympics so we can be kept informed of all possible outcomes the scoring system could throw up as events unfold...

With Miho’s zone in three tries on P3 that puts Janja on 13 ranking points, she’ll need at least a 34+ in lead to draw level and knock Mia down to 3rd which will see Shona up to 4th unless she get does worse than 28+ in which case Sean wins.

But you've got to admit that it's very likely to at least keep the final result in doubt until right at the end.

I suppose it does. I'm not entirely convinced that's a good thing though. It's sort of like what happens during the last race of the decathlon but there the maths is much simpler to understand. On balance I think it would be better if the results could readily be discerned from what you can see happening on the wall rather that having to wait on a the official spreadsheet updating. Hopefully it’ll be much simplified for Paris 2024. 😊

Just looking at the Korean women alone in the Asian championships: the greatest of all time in Lead versus the new hotshot. Versus Sol Sa who is also throughly credible & could get lucky and beat either or both of them on the day. OK, unlikely. But Sol Sa is also a stronger boulderer and faster in speed than Jain Kim, and we have basically no idea how good Seo is at either. I will not be placing any bets on that little three-way.

And who would have predicted two or three years ago that Jongwon Chon would be facing his third and last chance at Olympic qualification?

...and YueTong Zhang! Not Korean obviously, but I think she had a bit of an off day in Toulouse and from watching her in Lead events this summer and at the Tout à Blocs boulder comp, I think she's got a lot of potential. The Asian Continental Championship will certainly be hotly contested.

Hopefully this will not occur, but what happens if one (or more) of the climbers who has an Olympic place cannot compete? For example, if one of the Japanese climbers is unable to take part, would the place go to the next Japanese climber who would have qualified were it not for the country quota limit?

No but at the same time yes.

No because the spot is for named athletes rather than a spot for a country. So if anyone withdraws due to injury they get replaced by the next person on the ranking list from Hachioji.

Yes because the next person on the list is Japanese. In fact the next 2 on the list are Japanese, this is true for men and women.

What if ALL Japan's Hachioji ranked athletes fall sick. Will they get their Host spots back?

Golf seems to have a fairly complex Reallocation Reserve List: https://www.igfgolf.org/wp-content/uploads/olympicsMenReallocationReserveList-02_12_19.pdf

Interesting that it seems to fall to a teammate in most cases. I have no idea how their qualification system (or golf!) works though. 

It seem like with the use of strategic "sick notes", Japan do still have a lot of flexibility over who's in their team. Would they stoop so low?

May be opening a can of worms, but... if this is right, why were there any Japanese athletes in Toulouse? As none of the athletes there could qualify, and count-back will not be on those results? 

The combined scoring being based on relative performance the presence of such good athletes in the field, who are not eligible, messes with the results.... 

Especially given the critical importance of winning a discipline. By my reckoning, if you naively remove the Japanese scores and shift everyone up, Lucka beats Mia.

mine too... Though it would have also likely placed Fanny in the final so there would have been a French head to head... and a different field would generate a completely different set of results...