Author: Shaun P Kernahan

2025 IFSC World Cup Bali: Lead and Speed

2025 IFSC World Cup Bali: Lead and Speed

Under the stunning backdrop of crashing waves in Bali, nobody shined brighter than American Samuel Watson. In the semi-finals, he blitzed up the wall in 4.67 seconds, breaking his own world record set at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. In the final, he lined up next to Ryo Omasa looking to take his first gold this season and he clinched it in anticlimactic fashion when Omaso was called for a False Start, handing the gold to Watson. That wasn’t the end though, as Watson took the opportunity afforded to him and chose to go ahead and climb the wall once, uncontested, just he and the clock. Unbelievably, he bettered his semi-final time and set yet another world record, hitting the scoring pad in just 4.64 seconds. 

After a surprise early exit before the medals a week ago, Alesandra Miroslaw absolutely dominated the speed wall for the women. Once getting through qualifications, she did not allow a race to even be close, winning all four races by a minimum of six tenths of a second. Yafei Zhou got the silver, while Adi Asih Kadek won the Small Final in front of her home crowd to take home the bronze medal. 

The shock of the weekend came when Sorato Anraku fell moving to the 25th hold in the semi-finals, meaning he finished 16th, well outside the finals after gold in the opening boulder and lead events of the season. This opened the door for a new winner in the men’s final, which featured a sideways jump rather low on the wall that, while not immensely difficult, was clearly a move that made the climbers take notice. 

Max Bertone was the first on the wall in the final, and he made it look like it was going to be a high scoring final, getting up the head wall all the way to hold 41 right out the gates. The route was far from forgiving though, as two climbers failed to reach hold twenty, and only three got to hold 31. Alberto Gines Lopez nearly matched Bertone, but fell at 39+. The final climber of the day was Satone Yoshida, and Bertone was still atop the leaderboard. Yoshida’s climb was anything but boring, as he looked to get himself in difficult positions multiple times, none more so than when he got the rope stuck underneath a volume and was really having to fight the rope the final third of the wall. Despite this, he made it to the head wall and reached hold 42, securing himself the gold and knocking Bertone down to silver. 

The women were the nightcap, and they put on an absolute show! Mia Krampl put forth her typical edge of your seat performance and made it near the headwall, but that was only good enough for 7th. Ai Mori reached the top of the wall and clipped in, but time had run out, meaning she only got credit for hold 45. Still, essentially topping the route put her in an excellent spot, but that wound up only being good enough for bronze. Chaehyun Seo also made it to the top and clipped with time left on the clock after ending in a shared gold medal position a week ago with Erin McNeice . Seo and McNeice were the only two to top the route in the semi-finals, but McNeice had the better qualification score, meaning she got to climb last. McNeice naturally went on to match Seo again, and topped the route with almost the same time yet again, but that qualification score meant McNeice got to claim the gold all to herself, and Seo was awarded silver. Seo and McNeice are quickly becoming a rivalry to watch this IFSC season. 

The next IFSC World Cup event comes May 16-18 as we go back to bouldering in Curitiba, Brazil, where there was a recent fire at the facility but all reports are the event will be able to proceed without issue.

2025 IFSC World Cup Wujiang: Lead and Speed

2025 IFSC World Cup Wujiang: Lead and Speed

In the second of three consecutive weekends featuring IFSC World Cups, the focus turned to both Lead and Speed climbers in Wujiang this weekend. The speed climbing saw new milestones and plenty of upsets. 

American Emma Hunt faced off against the fastest woman in the world, Aleksandra Miroslaw of Poland. Miroslaw slipped low on the wall and had another stumble on the way up putting her well behind her typical pace. This opened the door for Hunt, but she slipped with just a few holds to go. Ultimately, Hunt touched the pad in 6.85 seconds, while Miroslaw touched one hundredth of a second later, sending Hunt to the semifinals and ending Miroslaw’s competition. In the semis, Hunt had the second fastest time, but the fastest was put in by the other woman on the wall, Jimin Jeong, while Shaoquin Zhang advanced to the final after Lijuan Deng fell in their race. 

Hunt put in her best time on the day in the Small Final but, ultimately, it was not enough as Deng put together an impressive 6.34 to win the bronze medal. Jeong was unable to beat Zhang, who took home gold in the Final in front of her home crowd.

On the men’s side world record holder Sam Watson flirted with his record time in qualifications, and again in the round of 16, but “slowed” down to 4.81 in the quarterfinal and advanced. The surprise then came when Hryhorii Ilchyshyn managed to beat Watson in the semifinal with a time of 5.11, while Watson put in one of his slower competition times of 5.17. Jianguo Long just did touch ahead of Kimoral Katibin, 4.81-4.83, meaning Katibin was relegated to the Small Final despite a PR. In that Small Final, Watson again put in a time over five seconds, while Katibin set a new PR of 4.75 to win bronze. Long vs. Ilchyshyn was not the final most were expecting, but it was a heck of a race, with them touching just a tenth of a second apart and, despite climbing sub-5 seconds for the first time ever, Ilchyshyn was unable to get gold and had to settle for the silver. 

The Lead climbing was even more bizarre than the Speed. While Mia Krampl finished 1+ holds out of making the final, her bat hang chalk/rest move in the qualifications might have been the most fun visual of the weekend. In the final, Laura Rogora was climbing well, but wound up spending far too much time and energy trying to find a way to statically get across what was a rather clear campusing jump traverse move and ultimately finished fourth. Annie Sanders got to 39+ and won bronze, while both Chaehyun Seo and Erin McNeice got to hold 41. They both happened to fall on that hold and, much to the shock and confusion of the commentary team, fans, and even competitors, both fell at exactly 4:26. Ultimately, this meant a shared gold between McNeice and Seo, Seo’s first gold since 2022 and the first for McNeice.

There were some surprising names that did not make it to the final on the men’s side, but none bigger than Olympic gold medalist Toby Roberts. Once the final did start, the oddities didn’t end. In his first ever final, Neo Suzuki downclimbed a hold to clip the quick draw and wound up getting assistance from the rope. After review, it was determined to be a belayer error and he was allowed to climb again. He made the most of his opportunity to get on the wall again, getting to hold 40 and made an attempt to 41, a full hold further than Alberto Gines Lopez, who finished third in his return to the podium. The Japanese prodigy Sorato Anraku was the last to come out and proceeded to fly up the wall with little trouble, topping out with 1:18 left on the clock. 

Lead and Speed come back again next weekend, this time in Bali.

2025 IFSC Boulder World Cup – Keqiao

2025 IFSC Boulder World Cup – Keqiao

The IFSC World Cup season has officially arrived as the boulder event in Keqiao, China took place over the weekend. This comes on the heels of a winter that saw the official announcement from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the three disciplines, Boulder, Lead, and Speed, will all have their own medals, allowing for specialization.

In the Tokyo Olympics the three disciplines were merged together, which created an odd look of elite boulder and lead climbers like Brooke Raboutou (fall) and Chaehyuon Seo (10.64) struggle. In 2024, the IOC separated Speed from Boulder and Lead, making for a more representative competition, but still had some athletes, Natalia Grossman, who specialize in Boulder really struggle on Lead, and vice versa.

The separation of the three disciplines will allow for those who do specialize to have a chance at a medal where they would otherwise struggle in the combined event, but this will also likely have us seeing much more specialization across the World Cups. There are also a couple fundamental changes to the competitions this year, with eight athletes making the finals rather than six, and the scoring now being a point system with 10 points for a zone, and 25 for a top with a 0.1 deduction for each attempt after the first.

The women’s qualification and semi finals went rather chalk in terms of those making it through to the next round, with Nekaia Sanders being the last one out in the qualification round, while Mashiro Kuzuu finished ninth in the semifinals and just missed the finals. The final boulders no the women’s side were really tough. Only one climber scored on all three boulders, as Annie Sanders got the zone in boulders one, two, and four, and topped boulder three. Oriane Bertone had the highest score in the semifinals, so she was the last on the mat and came out to boulder four needing a top to take home the title. She flashed the zone but, like every climber before her, failed to top the difficult boulder and Sanders won her second consecutive Boulder World cup. Erin McNeice took home the bronze.

On the men’s side, there were some big names that missed the finals, as Colin Duffy of the United States finished 18th, only scoring on two of the four boulders in the round, and British superstar Toby Roberts failed to top any of the boulders and finished in 15th. In the final, Oren Prihed of Israel failed to top any of the boulders, while Frenchman Paul Jenft only topped one and failed to score on the third. Everyone else topped at least two boulders in the final and scored on every boulder. Maichi Narasaki had an excellent final, topping three of the four and flashing the zone on the fourth, scoring 83.9 points, but ultimately ended up in a distant third place. Sorato Anraku finished second in the semis, so he was second to last on the wall, he entered the final boulder with a 0.2-point lead over Korean Dohyun Lee, meaning a top in two or fewer attempts would guarantee him a gold, and a top on third would land him with tied for first as the worst-case scenario. In typical Anraku fashion, he flashed the boulder and secured gold and finished just 0.3 points shy of a perfect score. Lee wound up topping the problem on his third attempt, scoring 99.3 points in the event, losing by 0.4.

The next World Cup event comes this weekend as the IFSC heads to Wujiang for both Lead and Speed competitions. The Lead competition does have two big names not in the registrant list, as Raboutou and Slovenian superstar and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Janja Garnbret are not among those who will compete. That said, many of the other top female Lead climbers are expected to compete, and could make for an incredibly tight competition.

2024 F1 Jeddah Preview

2024 F1 Jeddah Preview

FP1 in Bahrain raised a ton of hope among F1 fans that this year might be more competitive than last. FP2 and FP3 continued to raise hope, but then the inevitable happened. Red Bull was only a top three fastest in one of the three practice sessions, but Verstappen got pole in qualifying and put in an even bigger margin of victory than he did last year as Red Bull finished 1-2 and left with maximum points.

There were plenty of big stories out of the race weekend including the struggles of Alpine, qualifying 19 and 20. They finished 17 and 18, with the only two drivers behind them being Valtteri Bottas who was in a lap one collision that saw him drive the rest of the way with a damaged front wing, and Logan Sargeant who had mechanical issues and had to pull off the track for nearly a minute before switching out his steering wheel.

RB went downhill all weekend after Daniel Ricciardo was fastest in FP1 and Yuki Tsunoda was third fastest in that session. They qualified 14th and 11th respectively but the focus was late in the race when Tsunoda was instructed to give up position to Ricciardo but the move was argued and delayed quite some time, creating clear frustration from both parties.

Only five teams scored points, with Red Bull going 1-2 followed by the Ferrari’s finishing 3 and 4. Mercedes and McClaren are in an early battle as George Russell finished just ahead of Lando Norris, who was just ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who was just ahead of Oscar Piastri. The final two points spots went to the Aston Martins.

Jeddah is a high speed tight track that is sure to provide plenty of action, although it seems clear already Max Vestappen is a class all his own yet again, and the rest of the pack will battle behind him.

F2 and F1 Academy will serve as support races this weekend, just as F2 and F3 did a week ago.

F3 saw 16-year-old Arvid Lindblad win the sprint race and Luke Browning take home the featured race. Meanwhile, the F2 weekend was dominated by Zane Maloney, as he won both the sprint and featured races. He should see plenty of competition this weekend though, especially from Gabriel Bortoletto, who won pole position but made contact Isack Hadjar and was given a a 10 second penalty as Hadjar and Enzo Fittipaldi, who had the fastest lap in the sprint, both retired on lap one.

F1 Academy is in it’s second season, and this year we will see F1 liveries on the track. Amna Al Qubaisi, Hamda Al Qubaisi, Abbi Pulling, and Bianca Bustamante headline the field as they all return for another season. One name that may standout for facing fans is Lia Block. Block is the daughter of legendary late American rally driver, Ken Block. Lia will be driving for ART in the Williams livery car.

2024 F1 Season Preview

2024 F1 Season Preview

The 2023 F1 season was dominated by Red Bull, winning all but one race that season, most by Max Verstappen. Despite there being absolutely zero drama for either championship, the constructors standings were a lot of fun to follow below that. Mercedes edged out Ferrari by three points for second, while McLaren finished 22 points ahead of Aston Martin for fourth and fifth. Alpine had plenty of space on both sides as they finished sixth, while Alex Albon scored all but one of the Williams points to help them finish ahead of Alpha Tauri in seventh. Haas was unable to score any points after Singapore, and only one point after Miami to finish last on the season.

This year looks like it may be much more of the same from Red Bull after they dominated the times in preseason testing, while Haas was by far the slowest. While Williams had a quality season in 2023, they made plenty of concept changes this season, and it didn’t show all that great come testing, having the second slowest race simulation pace and qualifying simulation pace. Sauber (formerly Alpha Romeo) and Alpine had almost identical times in both sims, meaning we could be in for quite a battle there, although battling for seventh and eighth is definitely not where Alpine wants to be. The team that really opened some eyes in testing was the newly branded RB Cash Back Visa team, both with an impressive livery and impressive times. They put in times that suggest they could compete with the likes of Aston Martin rather than a team that points on a weekend feels like a success.

The big news on the driver front was the fact no seats are changing from the end of season to the start of this season, but then we learned Lewis Hamilton will be driving for Ferrari in 2025, meaning “silly season” will be all season. It should be interesting to see how this plays out as Mercedes and Ferrari anticipate battling it out for second all season, but Hamilton, George Russell, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, and Sergio Perez are all likely eyeing second place in the driver’s championship this year, assuming Verstappen runs away with it again this year.

Here are my predictions for the finishing order this season, starting with the constructor’s championship:

  1. Red Bull
  2. Mercedes
  3. Ferrari
  4. Mclaren
  5. Aston Martin
  6. RB
  7. Alpine
  8. Williams
  9. Sauber
  10. Haas

And for the driver’s championship:

  1. Max Verstappen
  2. Charles Leclerc
  3. George Russell
  4. Lewis Hamilton
  5. Sergio Perez
  6. Lando Norris
  7. Carlos Sainz
  8. Fernando Alonso
  9. Oscar Piastri
  10. Daniel Ricciardo
  11. Piere Gasly
  12. Alex Albon
  13. Lance Stroll
  14. Vallteri Bottas
  15. Yuki Tsunoda
  16. Esteban Ocon
  17. Logan Sargeant
  18. Niko Hulkenberg
  19. Zhou Guanyu
  20. Kevin Magnussen

F1 is not the only championship starting, we will also see F2 and F3 in action, with plenty of storylines to follow there.

A season ago Theo Pourchaire won the race in Bahrain by 19.666 seconds and went on to win the F2 driver’s championship as well. This year he will serve as the reserve driver for Sauber, so we will see a new winner this season. In fact, the top four finishers from a season ago have moved on to new championships, meaning the highest scoring driver from a season ago returning is Victor Martins, although the favorite just might be PREMA Racing driver Oliver Bearman.

In F3, the opening weekend truly serves as a season preview, as the driver’s championship winner has one at least one race in opening weekend in every F3 season. Winning at the F3 level will largely be uncharted territory for the pack, as only Gabriele Mini and Oliver Goethe will lineup over the weekend with a F3 race win on their resume. There will be 17 rookies on the grid, with both MP and Jenzer rolling out all-rookie driver lineups.

I am sure I speak for all racing fans when I say we can’t wait to hear “light’s out and away we go!”

2024 F1 Season Livery Rankings

Now that all the base liveries for the 2024 season have been unveiled there is only one thing left to do…rank them! Liveries like Ferrari get bonuses for being so widely recognizable similar to the New York Yankees or FC Barcelona, while there are two completely newly branded teams that entered the fray this season. So, lets get to the rankings that I am sure won’t make anyone mad.

10) Haas

The livery doesn’t have a great overhaul from last season, and it is still uninspiring. The extra black down the front of the car actually takes away from the look rather than adding to it. Add to that a change at team principal and two drivers that don’t move the needle, the Haas car is one that will be easily forgotten throughout the season.

9) Alpine

I am not quite sure how they pull it off, but they have hot pink in their color scheme and still end up with a dull livery. Had they gone with a scheme closer to what the Alpine racing team rolled out at Le Mans, it could have been great, but instead it is just blah.

8) Stake

Or are they still Kick Sauber, I can’t keep track, anyway, it looks…unfinished. Nothing on the front wing, Stake along the side pod taking up minimal space and doesn’t flow, it just needs work. That said, going with the brightest color scheme it at least catches your eye and won’t be forgettable like the previous look. It just leaves me wanting more.

7) McClaren

I still love the Google Chrome wheels, without questions the best use of their wheel space for a sponsor, but I wanted more papaya. There is just too much black in this livery for me, or maybe it’s the lines that just don’t flatter the car. That said, the chromed out numbers are pretty sweet and could really shine on race day.

6) Aston Martin

British Racing Green is about as recognizable a color when it comes to a car as the red of Ferrari, so that automatically moves them up a few spots. And they need it because the rest of the livery is just ok. I get Aramco is a sponsor, but their color scheme takes away from the classic green of the car, and moving it from the back side of the rear wing to the front enhances the clash.

5) Visa Cash App RB

I wanted to hate it, I really did, but it doesn’t suck. Yes, it is a busier design than a NASCAR at Daytona, but it is clean at the same time. Visa fits the sidepod well and the multiple bull locations are pretty good. The shine, the lines, they did well for the busiest name/livery in the field.

4) Red Bull

It doesn’t look like there are any major changes to the livery this year, apart from the bull being moved slightly. That said, this is a car that won all but one race a season ago, which gives the livery a history. Add to that Red Bull will certainly roll out a special livery or two this season, it is solid. Didn’t expect much change, and there wasn’t, but it is a solid design.

3) Mercedes

It coulda been so good, and they tipped their toes in the water for it too. A season ago they were basically all black with the teal stripe, this year they added silver to the nose with a wave of teal and I want so much more. If the car had more silver and less black, it could have been so much better. They also added some extra red in a few spots, which doesn’t really fit their color scheme, but at least it adds some color to the livery overall.

2) Williams

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I think they nailed it with this one! The two toned blue, the white lines contrasting against the darker colors. It is really well done. Add to that they bring back the Duracell battery on top which still may be my favorite sponsor incorporation on any F1 car, just a great all-around design.

1) Ferrari

There may not be a more love ’em or hate ’em team than Ferrari (although Red Bull is getting there), but it is hard to not love the Ferrari livery. The most recognizable livery in motorsports got an upgrade this year. The white and yellow stripes on the side pod above the Shell logo is a massive improvement, and adding red to the wheels helps the whole car really pop. Number one really wasn’t a contest this year!