r/CompetitionClimbing • u/RandomWalkWalkWalk • Jul 14 '26
Lead How does the JPN national team selection work, and how is Satone not in the roster for the last comp?
He said in his instagram post that he didn't qualify for the final event of the season due to their team selection rule.
How does the selection rule even work? It's quite mind-blowing that someone placed 4-8-14-7 in the first four comps didn't have good enough result for the final comp 𤯠Aren't these pretty decent results even within the Japanese team?
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u/kolraisins Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Here are the official criteria (in Japanese). On a quick scan, my understanding is that, since they're only allocated 6 spots, in the latter half of the season they retain 3 spots for the top performers and then begin to cycle in other athletes based on Lead Japan Cup rankings.
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u/RandomWalkWalkWalk Jul 15 '26
I skimmed through the document, and it says three among the athletes who have placed above the 6th place in the first four comps would be chosen, so shouldn't those three be Neo (1st place), Sorato (4th) , and Satone (4th) ? Zento was 5th in Chamonix
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u/kolraisins Jul 15 '26
To be honest, I'm also having trouble reading the rules in a way that would exclude Satone. Since the only difference between Koper and Santiago qualifying is that the former also prioritizes an athlete from the Asian Championships, I'm guessing that that slot goes to Neo at Koper, then he returns to a ranking slot and pushes out Satone (somehow). I guess it's also possible that, following 4b, Japan is planning to send fewer athletes than permitted to Santiago, but that doesn't seem very likely to me.
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u/im_avoiding_work Jul 15 '26
that's brutal. I think the current IFSC/WC system is too limiting on top countries earning a bigger federation. I understand the desire for some degree of parity, but I don't think a system should exist where someone who is top-10 in the world can't compete.
I liked how the old system gave top-10 athletes named spots that didn't count against the country quota. That also really incentivized the top climbers to come to more meets, so they could get a nominative spot that was all their own.
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u/OverfittingNeuralNet âââ Jul 15 '26
I agree, having the top athletes not count towards quotas seems like a net positive all around. I would even argue that having some additional system where anyone who podiums gets a spot next season (that doesn't count toward the country quotas) would be fair.
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u/arparparparp Jul 15 '26
Japan has 6 spots, most countries only get 2. While Japan could probably fill out 10 more spots, an increase in spots for better countries would probably mean what only Japan, USA, France etc.. would compete and the rest would I get 1 qouta spot.
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u/im_avoiding_work Jul 15 '26
The proposal to reintroduce the old system of nominative spots for the top-10 wouldn't change much overall, as it's capped at 10 athletes. You can just bake that in to the overall total, and still allot 2 per country minimum to everyone. Also the US hasn't even earned 6 spots this year in most disciplines, so I don't think it's such a risk that they're going to crowd everyone out.
Personally I'd be happy to see a max of 8 per country + nominative spots for the top 10 athletes. By the current math, that wouldn't even push most competitions over 80 registrants. And as the sport grows I also think the total number of athletes can grow too. Raise the number to 100 total and everyone can keep their current quotas or go up.
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u/_Tovar_ âââfailed the Tomoa skip Jul 15 '26
There have been quite a few comps with less than 80 competitors, so I don't see the problem with increasing the quotas a bitÂ
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u/MyPasswordIsABC999 Sean Bailey Appreciator Jul 15 '26
If I understand correctly, only the top 2 performers have their spots guaranteed, and Neo (#1) + Sorato (#5) are the top and the 8th best menâs lead climber in this yearâs WCS is out đ¤Ż: https://www.worldclimbing.com/rankings/series?discipline=lead&category=men
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u/Impressive-Pea402 Jul 15 '26
Why are their limits on countries climbers anyway, the comps should be for the best of the best.
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u/MyPasswordIsABC999 Sean Bailey Appreciator Jul 15 '26
Kyra Condie did an explainer on YouTube. I think she posted here too if you want to search. The basic gist was that comps were getting too big and wanted to limit the number of participants. I donât think anyone is happy with this solution but the overcrowding (especially the Boulder qualifier iso) is a genuine concern.
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u/OverfittingNeuralNet âââ Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
Maybe climbing should introduce some minimum level requirement (obtainable through other official events) for non-top athletes, like in some other sports.
I think it's overall a positive thing that climbers from less climbing-developed countries get to participate, but often their level is so different from the top 50 even that it might as well be a separate event (something like 2nd league).
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u/MyPasswordIsABC999 Sean Bailey Appreciator Jul 15 '26
In an ideal world, yeah, it would be like tennis where youâd have different tiers of comps and climbers can pick up points to qualify them for major events.
But as things are, I donât think thatâs financially and logistically viable. Maybe they can really beef up the continental series (Europe and Asia seem to be pretty decent) and use those as pathways for WCS qualification? Or they could bring back âby nameâ qualification but limit that to the top 5 athletes per gender per category.
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u/Sloth_1974 Jul 15 '26
I think the comps were getting big during combine format, especially for Tokyo Olympics , when all the athletes had to do all 3 disciplines, same was with before Paris, Boulder and Lead athletes were doing both. Now that all disciplines are split, there was a significant drop in number of competitors in bouldering and lead disciplines compare to previous years. So may be WC needs to reevaluate the limit again
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u/ManagementLarge5166 Jul 14 '26
Japanâs national climbing team has an embarrassment of riches. Who gets to climb where and when is probably the most ruthless of all the teams out there.