UKC

GB Climbing's Toby Roberts has qualified in first place for this afternoon's final at the IFSC European Qualifier event in Laval, France, where he will have the opportunity to earn an Olympic quota place for Paris 2024. Just one ticket will be awarded to the winner of the final round.

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In case anyone is interested, the YouTube link is live and the comp has started.

Quite enjoying this, first comp I've watched since Birmingham live sometime in the 90s.

Unbelievable the dude climbing without his spectacles firmly secured! 

Wow!

Just wow!

Looked so smooth! 

Just like the days of Moffat and Nadin!

That was some finish!

Phenomenal! ...and to think this is his first full season as an adult competitor.

I loved Adam Ondra’s reaction too. Big grin nodding his head in approval.

The boy done dead good!

Interestingly Shauna (enjoyed her commentary) didn't appear to have heard of dogbones.

And flagging or Greek dance seem to have been replaced by the rather lame "backstep" 

Nail biting! That was amazing, not over to the very end

I never thought I would say this but bring on the Olympics!

Yeah really enjoyed watching bits of this and the women's the previous day. Tobys lead was just awesome especially at the top when he realised he'd won and still had the composure for that last leap to the finishing hold. 

Shauna and the other chap have a good rapport and add a lot to the experience of watching. I think the format actually makes good viewing which surprises me as until my daughter got into watching indoor comps on TV I'd never really bothered

To me, flagging is quite different from back-stepping, the former doesn't involve a foot making contact with the rock / wall, whereas the latter does. I've never heard of "Greek dance" in the context of rock climbing - do you mean "Egyptian"?

I guess your backstop was my greek dance presumably now obsolete.

Egyptian is basically drop knee but I can understand why the former has gone out of fashion particularly for a TV audience.

The only thing I enjoy more than a bit of Greek dance is sidelining discussion of a great sporting performance with a debate about obscure climbing terminology. FWIW my understanding is:

A backstep is, well, stepping back on to a hold. This presupposes you are facing sideways to start with, so the position you end up in is the classic Egyptian. 

The same pose can be attained, starting face-on, by putting a foot on a hold out to the side (knee pointing up), then dropping the knee and rotating your body away from the hold.

Flagging is different. Basically, it is sticking your leg out for balance rather than support, but it is also often combined with preventing rotation by applying an inward (rather than downward) force on the wall.